# How long does it take to get Internet set up?



## Pelon (Jan 2, 2013)

Hello,

So let's say I move to a big city like Las Palmas or Santa Cruz on the Canary Isles. I waste no time and find a cheap non-holiday apartment in a couple of days through segundamano or a similar site. Now, how long would it approximately take me to set up an Internet connection? Problem is that I need a proper connection for work 8 hours a day so getting online quickly is pretty much vital.

Am I correct in assuming that most of the apartments for rent in Las Palmas or Santa Cruz would already have a phone line installed? What kind of documentation would I need to get connected (never lived in Spain before)? NIE number, Spanish bank account? What sort of a timeframe are we looking at here? Days, weeks?

If things go slow, I suppose one option would be to find a flatshare through pisocompartido and move into a place that's already connected. What say you o wise ones?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance! :yo:


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

I've recently moved house, 300 metres from my old house, in the capital city of Europe's 5th largest economy, 12th largest in the world (Madrid, in case you haven't guessed).
I've been a customer of the same multinational UK based internet provider for 6 years, and I informed them of my move one month before it took place.

I was 7 weeks without either a phone or internet.

I suggest you base your calculations on that and then plan accordingly..........


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## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

hello, and welcome!

Telephone lines and Internet are often a sore point throughout Spain and I'm assuming that the Canary Islands are no different. Firstly, you should check if the normal "mains" telephone lines –telefonica - who were the Spanish equivalent to British Telecom have supplied service to the building that you are moving into. If they have not then you will be unlikely to obtain service through them and would need to seek alternative solutions. I personally use WiMax and although I have been through several very unreliable companies I now have an absolutely fantastic company and I to work from home and get a fantastic connection which I use both Internet and telephone calls for between eight and 12 hours a day.

Clearly, the best solution is always a fixed line and whether you use Telefonica on alternative supplier such as ONO ( who are the fibre-optic suppliers on the mainland, not sure about the islands) or a third-party supplier through Telefonica line then obviously this is going to provide you with the most reliable service.

The problem that you may encounter as I have done in the past is that quite often on both old and indeed brand-new buildings Telefonica often put in wiring but insufficient wiring to surface every apartment in a building or every house on an urbanisation. In my last house although there were Telefonica wires to the urbanisation which was brand-new they had only installed enough pairs of cables to service approximately half of the houses on the assumption that this would be enough and therefore they were never able to supply me with service. Likewise, I once moved into an apartment block several years ago and all of the available cables were used and my name had to go on a waiting list and it was almost 18 months until somebody obviously cancelled their service and they were able to supply me with a line.

Sadly, until you actually go to apply you will never know for certain 100% the exact situation. The only way you can be certain is if there is currently a live connection in the actual house or flat that you are going to and you will be transferring this into your name. If there are cables but they are effectively dead – turned off – then until you actually go to order the line you will not be 100% sure. Indeed in my last house Telefonica processed my order and it wasn't until the engineer arrived that I was told there were insufficient cables.

Assuming that there are cables and you are able to get service then you would need a Spanish bank account and your passport or NIE number. You would probably also need to produce your rental contract. I do know that sometimes if you are a short-term (holiday) rental then company such as Telefonica may not wish to supply you because if it is a new install it may be subject to a one year or 18 month contract. You said that you are looking for a normal holiday apartment so assuming that you sign a one-year contract this should not be an issue.

Assuming everything goes smoothly and there is indeed service available in your house then it would usually take 7 to 21 days for Telefonica to install. This can sometimes be quicker and indeed sometimes take longer. Other service providers will have their own timeframes although the current wireless service that I use installed the day after I placed the order. obviously, this is a local independent company and so they give personal service rather than the mass number of clients that companies like Telefonica deal with.

You say that you have never lived in Spain before, are you here at the moment? You talk about finding an apartment online but obviously this can be very risky and as I'm sure most of my friends on here would agree it would be far better to be in the area and dealing directly with an agency or the landlord rather than dealing distantly online when it comes to any kind of transaction that involves entering into a contract!

Good luck with it all!


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Ours was installed in just over a week iirc. When we changed to a micro system it took less than that


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## RichTUK (Oct 15, 2012)

7 weeks, Wow, we had ours set up in Alicante through ONO within 2 days maybe 3, laid the wires and set up the tv and router in our flat for the phone, tv and net all within around 20 mins and made next to no mess at all. very impressed.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

You'll get dongle coverage in Las Palmas no problem which will get you up and running instantly, might not be cheap depending on how much you up upload and download of course but at least you'll be online until a more permanent solution is sorted.


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## carlnotts (Sep 13, 2012)

We chose to go with (Telefonica) Movistar as we need a reliable connection for work, they connected us within a week and must say very impressed with the speed, the guy did say it might be slow as we are quite away from the exchange but haven't noticed a drop in speed. It's as good as our Internet connection in the UK who we have through BT

Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


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## Delila (Jan 3, 2013)

I get it in 2 weeks, but the service was great


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## Pelon (Jan 2, 2013)

Thanks for the replies!

A dongle sounds like a good idea, although I might burn through the download limit pretty quickly. Anybody know if there are plans with more than 5 gigs a month?

Steve: Thanks for the detailed post! Just to clarify a couple of things, I was thinking of finding a regular, non-holiday apartment in Las Palmas most probably. I'm not in Spain at the moment, but I should be able to move in a few months if all goes well. And yeah, I would be looking at apartments only when I'm in the area. Just meant that I would be searching for them online with the help of segundamano and similar sites.

Overandout: Ouch, 7 weeks, I feel for you! :ranger:


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