Gill Stevens

We are thinking about purchasing a laptop computer(wireless) in the UK for when we go to live in Spain. Does anyone know if it will be cheaper to purchase here or in Spain? The mid-level laptops seem to be about £550. What sort of price are they in Spain and where are the best places to look around the Alicante region?

Also we have been told that the wireless laptops only work in a few places in the UK but will work in most places in Spain as there are only a few hotspots in the UK.

We would appreciate assistance as we would need to e-mail back to UK regularly and surf internet regularly. We don't really want to bother with a landline in Spain and bother with modems etc. Is the wireless internet fairly reliable in Spain?

La Joconde

The only thing I can tell you is that there is a PC World in Alicante,

and many more other large outlets called "Informatica-Tecnologia......" (cant remember the exact name) who sell laptops.

Prices are very similar to that of UK prices, El Cortes Ingles, Carrefour and Eroski also have a wide selection of laptops.

Many people do use wireless laptops, here, especially in rural areas as there are still no land-line available.

Gill Stevens

Thanks for the assistance. We have searched on the internet for hotspots in Spain and there appear to be very few around the Alicante area so these people in the rural areas must be going quite a distance to use their laptops. We want to use ours at home so I don't think it will be possible unless we use satelite internet. Do you know anything about that re who provides it, how much it is per month and how much to install?

coralsoft

It might be worth getting one in the UK to ensure it's set up with all-English software and the deals you can get in the UK are generally better value for money. Do this well before you leave to give time to sort out any initial problems. If it's an international manufacturer then warranty work later on might not cause a problem, but check the details of whatever support package you get to see if they can deal with it abroad. Given that laptops are supposed to be aimed at travellers, I'd imagine some would be set up to cope with out-of-the-country problems.

It's possible to buy on-line from Dell for delivery in Spain, for example, and specify an English installation (but it took them about a month after delivery to rectify this, in my case) and keyboard (or Spanish default). No doubt other companies in Spain would be able to do an anglicised laptop for you but you'd have to ask specifically for that and you'd also have to make a decision on whether to go for a Spanish or English keyboard. The markings will be for one or the other and it's easy enough to set up your pc so that you can switch between them, but some of the common characters are not on the same keys, since the Spanish set-up has the extra Spanish characters and symbols.

You might strike lucky and find an unprotected neighbour's connection, but I'm not sure I understand why you're considering Satellite, when a landline & ADSL is so comparatively straightforward in most circumstances. Paying for ADSL at a wi-fi hotspot could surely work out as costly and inconvenient as installing a landline + ADSL?

Gill Stevens

Thanks for your reply. As we already have the Windows XP CD here in the UK plus Microsoft office CD will it not be possible to put that on in Spain and just ask where we buy it from to not bother putting any operating system on??

I suppose I have been looking at the monthly WiFi costs here with BT Openzone which are still less than paying for line rental and broadband in Spain which probably won't mean a thing in Spain.

On the Telefonica in english site the basic line rental is almost 18 euros plus calls which is more expensive than BT in the UK and then the broadband on top for the basic 512 speed is another 40 euros which I think is really expensive compared with here amd the 18 euro rental seems an unnecessary expense if we are not going to be making many calls.

The other option is just pay for calls and no line rental, but the calls are more expensive and even if we don't make any calls it still costs 14 euros min with Telefonica.

The general idea was to get by on a lot less income in Spain than in the UK, but it seems that water, electricity, telephone and broadband costs are going to be the same if not more?

Maybe the satelite option will be even more expensive than that but as we do not know where to look to get a price we don't know. Also we may wait a long time for the Telefonica line according to the various posts on the forums.

What are the GPRS costs like with Movistar or Amena?

jaldridge

GPRS is only good really for emailing only. The costs can soon mount up if you start surfing the Internet a lot (such as these forums!). We have found that there are many "open" wireless hotspots all over the place that you can hook onto for nothing (I didn't say that!).

Gill Stevens

I do know what you mean. My neighbour fetched me round to show me an "open" hotspot he had got into in his garden the other weekend!!!

svenskidoo

See sig

If you are in an area where you can't get a landline or can't get broadband then Satellite Broadband is an option.

Have a look at the Bluestar Internet website, there is a quick guide to download from there that will give you an idea of what is the best option for your needs.

jaldridge

The problem with satellite broadband is the cost. It can cost over 2000 Euros to set it up...which is a lot of money!! There are some companies such as fonetica which are offering wireless internet services which are worth checking out. These are quite affordable.

coralsoft

You'll need to find an proper computer retailer that will leave Windows off to let you install it, or, if you don't want to do that yourself, one that will give you a discount for not bundling the licence, assuming you have one with the CD (you will if it was a geniune purchase, but may not have a full install disk if it came on a PC pre-installed.

I always try to avoid using the state supplier, where possible - their reputation is normally pretty bad when you look around. Obviously you'll have to wait if there's a line needs putting in, but do have a look around at alternative ADSL and phone call suppliers. You can probably get a bundled deal that's comparable to the UK. We use ya.com for broadband (includes a free wireless router to connect) and some other company for phone calls (my wife deals with it, so I can't remember the name).