Carla66

Good morning all
We are lucky enough to have just bought a house in beautiful Figuiero dos Vinhos and will be moving in in a couple of weeks.
We want to get a really good internet connection (and also good value!). Which provider would you recommend?
Many thanks

GeniB

Good morning Carla and welcome to wonderful Portugal.

Not familiar with Figuiero dos Vinhos but it sounds like you could get a good glass of wine there !!.. Where about's is it?. There are three servers in Portugal. Meo.Nos, and Vodofone
So depends who serves your area.. Good luck with your move

macliam

Be very, very, very careful - wait until you get there and then ask what people around you use - actual experience is far more important than recommendations.

In my experience, providers lie through their teeth about linespeed and capacity and use every opportunity to attempt to sell you "packages" you are unlikely to need. Contracts also run for 2 years - and the penalty for early withdrawal is to pay all the remaining monthly payments and get nothing in return! Consumer protection is not anywhere near UK standards.

You have a choice between DSL, mobile and fibre (if it's in your area). I've been told the chance of fibre where I am is negligible and MEOs local DSL switch has a whole 8mbps to share across all connections - so I end up with less than 2mbps.... the only saving grace is that there are few users on the line at present. The landline also "gives" a home telepone, but unless a call package suits you, you'll find it's cheaper to use your mobile than the landline - mine is 90% a channel for MEOs sales teams to try to sell me things up to 10pm, regardless of requests for them to stop. For this magnificent service, I now pay €40 a month (until September!)

My neighbours use Vodafone mobile - and pay €25 a month for around 5mbps download speed. However, whereas my DSL offers unlimited downloads, most mobile internet has a cap - and although my neighbours aren't aware of any cap, I'll be carefully checking this out before signing up. I'll also get them to bring their kit to my house to ensure I do get an improvement (or at least the same as now!)

Being more central/north, you might have fibre available. Relatives there have this and are happy with their service (and price) so far- it's a postcode lottery.

Good Luck!

mfesharne

Carla
Welcome to the forum.

We live just outside Figueiro Dos Vinhos & you'll be very pleased to know the area has pretty good internet connections overall & even more pleased to hear there's an English guy in the town who will not only advise you on what's best for your exact location but can also set you up with things like best TV options & anything computer related etc.

You can email him at [email protected]

Feel free to send me a PM if you need to know more about his services or if you need help getting settled with things like residencias or local knowledge etc.

mfesharne

And you'll also be pleased to know the local wine is very good indeed!|

Carla66

Hi macLiam
Many thanks for such a detailed response. Lots of things we need to be aware of then,so thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Carla66

Hi there, thanks for your response. It's good that there is good Internet locally and thanks for The email for Chris, we'll definitely be giving him a call. And yes, we know the local wine is very good!

mfesharne

Most of FdV has Meo fibre optic but Chris will be able to get you fully sorted out & I can highly recommend him.

Carla66

Sounds great, many thanks for this

Carla66

Hi Geni, thanks for your response. Figueiro dos vinhos is about 30 minutes from Coimbra in Central Portugal. After spending 8 hours in Bank Holiday traffic earlier today on our way up to Edinburgh, the peace of Portugal is even more attractive. Can't wait to move over!

GeniB

Hi again Carla... Quite a few memories of driving through holiday traffic to and from Edinburgh as YD went to University there. You can add on the extra mileage to get 'home' to where we then lived in the Netherlands as well.

Agree it's much nicer here in Portugal... Altho! We spent 45 minutes trying to get out of Lagos last Sunday.The reason being an inline skating competition around the town. I fear Trip Advisor may have done us some damage as well.They have us as the no1 destination for Americans. Lagos is noticeable busier this Easter

Our internet is sporadic. Due to limited availability. We can be tipped off whenever the provider chooses. Going in and complaining to MEO we have had amazing results... which lasted three to four weeks before we were dumped again. We also have the location problem. Upstairs in the study and living area's it's almost 100% good. Whereas downstairs in the bedrooms it's a pain. I find myself often touching the laptop to the wall to find the connection or having to walk into the hall way where we have a plug in feed. Roll on fibre

barlaventoexpert

MEGA-WARNING here!

If one is thinking of buying a house in a rural area of Portugal AND you need good quality Internet, MAKE SURE prior to buying that there is good coverage. Don't trust the word of Estate Agents or telecoms shops! Get someone technically qualified & speaks Portuguese to check things out first.

Am tired of the bleats from folk who buy and then bleat when they can't get the coverage they want!

macliam

I agree - but then, high-speed internet wasn't my reason for buying. In general, I think coverage here is better than in the UK overall - at my house in Suffolk I also get sub-3mbps (although fibre is available) and half the mobile networks don't work..... Telecoms companies could provide fibre backhaul to improve speeds overall, but then they wouldn't be able to sell "Fibre to the cabinet" as a premium product.

It's not the speed I object to here, it's the lies, the inflated cost and the insistence that you must want a "package".

mfesharne

In fairness, fibre optic internet is spreading pretty much on a daily basis (especially in some of the rural areas) so things are getting better & I'm told that PT is miles ahead of the UK in that regard......... packages are also reducing now which is also good news.

It wasn't that long ago that Meo (for example) made you have a mostly useless TV package and often cell phone SIM cards as well....... They now offer unlimited fibre optic (where available) and landline only for a very reasonable €30 per month or so......... We've just changed to that & they promised us 100 Mbps which is exactly what we get.

That said, it cannot be denied that they do often promise more than they can deliver so it's advisable to check speeds as soon as a new connection is made & to be utterly ruthless in cancelling during the cooling off period if they don't deliver what was promised.