Fred James

Movistar and O2 are sister companies owned by Telefonica. We have been customers of Movistar for about 4 years since the day that they brought full fibre 1Gb Internet to us in the campo.

We have a landline and two mobiles plus gigabit Internet under their Fusion package. We have been very satisfied with it. However the free mobile calls are limited and the price has increased over time.

O2 now offer the same package, without the obligatory (free) basic TV package to approx €25/mth less. I changed over yesterday and all the changes were made within 5 minutes. No change of router or phone numbers - totally painless.

For anyone currently using Movistar it is definitely worth looking at.

spainrico

Very lucky you!!! I investigated this option a while ago - same as you on overpriced Movistar (and paying for things in the package I don't use: landline, 2nd mobile, TV but they can't be removed from the contract) and so I contacted O2 - looked very simple to switch, O2 even said you will keep the same router BUT then O2 decided I did not have coverage!

DLC

A while back there were restrictions on the ex-monopoly company competing in areas where there wasn't much competition and the O2 brand had to either offer a higher price or not offer service, with the aim of avoiding these areas having fibre from just Movistar and O2 (also Movistar).

These restrictions were lifted last summer, so you could try looking into it again.

spainrico

Yes, that sounds a good idea I will, thanks a lot.

astera

I only have fibre from Movistar but I feel that I am paying too much compared to how much we were paying at our previous place.

Movistar Conecta 600 Mb at around 42 Euros/mth, does that sound about right or is it a bit high? If switching to O2 would require no physical/equipment change then that doesn't seem like a risky option.

Barriej

We have the same but its contracted via Dragonet who are the only suppliers locally. Its €42 but made up of two amounts, one for the fibre and one to dragonet..
I managed to speak to Moviestar direct (in English) and they said we were not in a coverage area. I even quoted the install agreement number (that the moviestar engineer left us when they installed the fibre) and they still didn't want to know.

Spain is years behind the rest of the world, but hey at least you dont have to take a landline, which we did and others still do in the UK....

Lynn R

According to the USwitch global index, Spain ranks 4th in the world for median download speed.

Global Broadband Index (uswitch.com)

We are very happy with our provider, a small local company which started out providing cable TV and diversified. We have been with them for more than 10 years now and the speed has increased x10 whilst the cost has gone up by only €1 per month in all that time. We are paying €19.90 per month for 300 mbps upload/download which is more than adequate for our needs, but we don't have either a fixed phone line or mobiles with them.

DLC

Wikipedia puts it at 14th, and most of the countries which beat it are small states where dense population makes it easy to roll out fast Internet.

astera

I think a lot depends on one's location within a particular country. Looking at these rankings I see countries with phenomenal internet speeds but seemingly dragged down the order due to lower fibre rollout in less populated areas.

Personally I have a thing for landlines but I cannot see them surviving in this day and age.

That a good price and an adequate connection for most households, unless you have a handful of kids who are going to clog it up once they all start downloading and/or streaming at once but even then it should still hold.

300 megabits ps is 37.5 megabytes ps so still quite high.

Fred James

The basic O2 deal is 300mb plus a mobile with 10gb data unlimited calls at €30. Extra mobiles are €5 each.
Excellent customer support by phone email or WhatsApp.

tebo53

I have been with Movistar for 8 years and happy with the service but it has become expensive. I considered 02 and looked at the reviews. 90% of reviews on Trust pilot were one star (out of 5 stars) due to poor services, technical support and cancellation policy etc, including several already from this year
I think I'll give 02 a wide birth and pay Movistar price for excellent service and support.

Steve

astera

What are the Movistar reviews? One thing I have noticed living here is that people love to create a flood of negative opinions, often based on something they're unhappy about but which has no logical basis. Especially when it comes to insurance. I've read stuff about how someone had motorcycle insurance but then their friend who isn't covered (ineligible for some reason?) crashed it and the company refused to pay even though he begged them to cover it. So who's fault it is? The company's of course. Bad insurer. Bad review for not paying... for something it shouldn't pay for.

I wonder just how different Movistar and O2 are given their ownership correlation. Is it just on paper, are there really completely different buildings housing their employees? I mean their systems seem linked if you can move services so seamlessly, no equipment change needed even, etc.

DLC

Adamo are a smaller provider, the Internet's reliable, I've only needed to call them a couple of times in years and both times I spoke to someone who knew what they were talking about.

Fred James

Movistar get a much lower rating on Trustpilot than O2. In fact, of the 9 major broadband suppliers in Spain, O2 is by far the best. Actually they are all pretty low rated, it’s the nature of the product which gives rise to many problems resulting in complaints.

I started the thread to point out to existing Movistar users that they could make a significant saving by changing to O2. I was not making any recommendations about service. If you are with Movistar and are happy with their service then you will be happy and better off with O2 as it is exactly the same equipment that you are using. It’s just a lower cost, no frills, Telefonica offering.

astera

Saw an O2 ad on the side of a bus just yesterday, pretty sure it was similar to what you mentioned with the fibre + mobile with a price-tag of 30 or so EUR. Only thing that surprised me is that it wasn't sub-30 given that I'm in the Canaries. Will be on the lookout for the same ad throughout the day.

This is definitely a better deal than Movistar and even if you up the options to 500mbps fibre (and 50GB mobile) the price only goes up to 38 EUR.

Plus as you mentioned, no equipment change necessary.