# costa del sol hispeed internet question



## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

hi everyone, after visiting malaga, torrox and benalmadena for a few weeks or so each time we are thinking of spending a longer peiod somewhere in the area, likely between mijas to the west, velez-malaga to the east and perhaps puerto de la torre to the north, we want to be close to the city, the sea and the like.

we are in our 40's, not here to work, the only worry we have is regarding internet service, our experience has been mixed. we like to do a little remote desk-top work, skype, streaming tv and movies from the uk and north america, we use voip phones to stay in touch with everyone and that sort of thing, so really we need a solid dsl of 1MB or better. we've been in france for the last couple of years and are spoiled by 8-10mb speeds from orange.

does anyone have any experience they can share regarding 'good' internet service? i see many many posts about 'bad' internet, but surely someone somewhere has great service that would fit our needs? I imagine that being out in the campo would be out of the question, much as i would like it (although from the area defined above we wouldn't be too far out anyway)

sad to say we'd be a bit lost without the features we are used to, is there hope for us?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

eyeboy said:


> hi everyone, after visiting malaga, torrox and benalmadena for a few weeks or so each time we are thinking of spending a longer peiod somewhere in the area, likely between mijas to the west, velez-malaga to the east and perhaps puerto de la torre to the north, we want to be close to the city, the sea and the like.
> 
> we are in our 40's, not here to work, the only worry we have is regarding internet service, our experience has been mixed. we like to do a little remote desk-top work, skype, streaming tv and movies from the uk and north america, we use voip phones to stay in touch with everyone and that sort of thing, so really we need a solid dsl of 1MB or better. we've been in france for the last couple of years and are spoiled by 8-10mb speeds from orange.
> 
> ...


In the town of Velez-Malaga itself, there are two cable TV companies which also offer broadband. We are with the one called Electrovideo TV and we have a 20mb connection (with actual speed of over 19) for €18 per month including IVA. They have other packages such as 30mb broadband plus telephone, and I believe also a 50mb option. They also cover some areas of Torre del Mar, but nowhere else. Their website is 
Inicio

The other company is called Velevisa

Velevisa.com

If you had a long term rental property I'm sure it would be possible to have it installed, our contract had the option to cancel after two months. In addition to the monthly fee we paid a €90 deposit for the wifi router which my OH looked up online and says is a good standard one (Arris if that means anything to you).

As far as I am aware there are no other companies other than in Malaga capital offering the same kind of speeds at these prices.


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## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

Lynn R said:


> In the town of Velez-Malaga itself, there are two cable TV companies which also offer broadband. We are with the one called Electrovideo TV and we have a 20mb connection (with actual speed of over 19) for €18 per month including IVA. They have other packages such as 30mb broadband plus telephone, and I believe also a 50mb option. They also cover some areas of Torre del Mar, but nowhere else. Their website is
> Inicio
> 
> The other company is called Velevisa
> ...


wow, that would be fantastic to get that speed, i'm not concerned about price sas much as i am speed, are you aware of other companies that can get anywhere near those speeds??


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

eyeboy said:


> wow, that would be fantastic to get that speed, i'm not concerned about price sas much as i am speed, are you aware of other companies that can get anywhere near those speeds??


No, as I said I don't know of any others apart from fibre optic being available in some areas of Malaga Capital.

For comparison purposes, until the beginning of this year we were with a firm called Broadband4Spain - they now charge €35 per month plus IVA for speeds which their own website says "may reach 10mb". We never got more than 6, and then we were paying €29 pm. They have increased their prices since then. Oh, and their initial set-up charge is €249.


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## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

Lynn R said:


> No, as I said I don't know of any others apart from fibre optic being available in some areas of Malaga Capital.
> 
> For comparison purposes, until the beginning of this year we were with a firm called Broadband4Spain - they now charge €35 per month plus IVA for speeds which their own website says "may reach 10mb". We never got more than 6, and then we were paying €29 pm. They have increased their prices since then. Oh, and their initial set-up charge is €249.


i would still be happy with that, sadly. we are on movistar over here in benalmadena just now, speeds of 300Kbps are 'fast'. My tuenti sim can reach 3000kbps, but it's inconsistent, and not the cheapest. 

In Malaga city we had good speed, out in Torrox it was a sattelite thing that was quite slow... ended up using mobile hotspots instead.

However as I mentioned I'd be happy with 6, or 3 even... 

thanks for your insight!


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## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

Hey Eyeboy. Even here in Malaga where you can get very high speed, you can't always get it, no matter how much you're willing to pay. My neighbours above me and below me want to have Internet hook-up, but they have run out of lines in our building. So they don't have any connection. So even in the best of circumstances by living in Malaga, you may have problems.


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## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

wow, so crazy. it is a bit of a deal-breaker! odd that our choices are so limited down here. maybe we will have to look at other areas or larger cities. i really like spain, but i have to live in the 21st century


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

In the Torrox region there is a company called Broadband 4 Spain. From Feb next year they are offering 25mbps down for €49 a month. They also offer a VOIP telephone service for €18 a month with free landline calls to almost everywhere in the world. The problem here, as mentioned above, is that one person can get great service whilst their neighbour has nothing. So the key is to do your research thoroughly before choosing where to live. BB4S will give you a good indication of whether or not they can supply internet at a property before you move in and other companies can also offer this service. Beware estate agents and landlords as they will always tell you what you want to hear, not always the truth...


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## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

hi Thrax, yes I've seen them advertised around... they are a wimax company if i recall. we aren't likely to be coming down until next spring at the earliest as we've just begun the long stay residency application process... 

i will definitely be spending hours on the forums looking into wimax, satellite etc. I'm definitely sceptical of movistar adsl, seems to be slow more than fast from what i read on here


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

I'm having fibre optic broadband installed next week, for just €12 a month more than I pay now for ADSL and I'm 40km outside Madrid. I'll get 100Mb, so Movistar claim, for €53.58, including phone line and free national calls. 

Fibra Ã“ptica 100Mb. La mejor fibra al mejor precio - Movistar

I wonder if there's a way to find out what the national coverage is or is will be? It would be very useful for those of us looking to move.


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## whitenoiz (Sep 18, 2012)

The main problem is that with _any_ company offering adsl / wimax / satellite or other internet service you won't find out your *actual* speeds until the system is installed and up and running _after_ you have signed a contract...

ADSL Internet by wired phone lines in Spain is controlled by the capabilities of the Movistar / Telfonica infrastructure and in many areas particularly rural it pretty dire at times. This applies irrespective of who the contacted supplier is be it Movistar itself, Jazztel, Ono or whoever. There are no guarantees whatsoever regarding actual speeds attained in practice. 

Where we are we are contracted to Movistar's 6Mbps service and rarely see above 2Mbps. At the moment are waitng for Movistar to correct a fault which reduced our download speed to below 400Kbps; this despite the fact that we are less than 200 metres from the local switching centre. 

I see little point in 'upgrading' to their 10Mbps service since it uses the same infrastructure; if it cant handle the bandwidth requirements of a 6Mbps service, it sure as hell wont be able to handle 10...

As more and more people are buying Smart TV's which can handle TV via the phone lines and then signing up to Movistars 'Fusion' package (or the Jazztel equivalent) which give a phone line, ADSL and a TV service, the infrastructure is becoming / has become over subscribed and saturated; as this happens so the download speeds reduce to the point where the internet is almost unusable.

I've said this before but regarding Wimax services these are only available where the receiving antenna at your home has a direct line of sight view of the transmitting antenna and whilst these Wimax companies may say 'unlimited downloads' this phrase _may_ be affected by Fair Usage Policies which are anything but fair... once your up / down traffic exceeds a certain level your speeds _can_ be reduced to around 256Kbps until your next accounting period commences. This also applies to some Satellite Internet suppliers.

Lots of sharks out there, so beware the small print!


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## eyeboy (Feb 10, 2012)

yes, definitely must do the homework! i think we are likely to have to utilize at least 2 systems to ensure we get what we need, adsl and wimax/satelite/mobile

it's less of a money issue than a i just need it to work issue.

for a laugh i typed a few addresses into the movistar website last night, some of them might be getting fibre in the next 2 months! here's hoping!


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