Graham2005

Hi !

I wonder if someone can help?

We have recently obtained internet with a router and phone through Telefonica. After being told is would be 40 euros a month we have since been billed nearly 250 euros to install a new line, for the router and the phone. It turns out now that the min. cost per month is around 60 euros . We are not entirely happy about laying out all this money after being told it would only be 40 euros a month and not being told about the other hidden costs.

Can anyone recommend another internet provider we can use ? In all honesty we only really need an off peak service.

If anyone can offer any advice I would be most grateful.

Many Thanks

Graham.

Unexpat

Sounds like you paid for Telefonica's 24/7 "unlimited use" service, when you probably only need weekends and evenings.

All ADSL broadband connections require a phone line, so if you didn't have one, then that'll be the "hidden costs" you refer to. Otherwise it should only be €40 pm and the monthly rental cost for the voice line (which if you need a voice line anyway, wouldn't count as part of that cost in my book ... unless you don't of course).

I believe the monthly cost of an evenings and weekends service is going to be much less (around €15 pm) plus the line rental. However, Telefonica's products are a nightmare to navigate - or should I say a minefield?

The Spanish like to bundle things up in offers (ofertas) which obscures the true cost of something and makes it seem that you are getting something for nothing. In some case, you can find genuine "ofertas" and get some value out of it, but you need to check all the small print.

The trend today is also to maximise the value of having a telephone line and broadband, so if you are active family internet users, voice callers and take broadband video packages over your line, you can usually get a good deal, with "unlimited" local and national (and in some cases international) calls, broadband and a video package for a fixed monthly cost. The problem is that if you are a "minimalist" user, you usually get stuffed.

Installation costs of ADSL etc., are often on oferta as free, but if you didn't take the oferta, well I'm afraid you missed out - unless you can express your "indignation" at missing out on the offer in reasonable Spanish - although I believe Telefonica has an English Client helpline somewhere.

There are other cheaper/higher speed ADSL suppliers around (see links at end of this post), other than Telefonica, but after much research I would only recommend them to someone who doesn't need the most reliable Internet connection. Things may change, with time, but between Telefonica's protective "dirty tricks" (I'll deny I ever said that ) and the problems that new, expanding, growing ISPs have, at the moment, this is a recipe for less than sterling results.

Frankly, if you don't need high speed access and only access the Internet an hour a day, then you don't need broadband. Get a dial-up service. You'll need the telephone line, of course, plus a dial-up analogue modem and a dial-up service provider. I've used GoNutsForFree "on the move" and can recommend them at 60 cents an hour.

Useful sites:

http://www.adslzone.net/comparativa.html (Table of main Spanish ADSL suppliers/products)

http://www.adslayuda.com/ (Useful techie info for ADSL)

http://www.gonuts4free.com/ (Pay as you go Dial-up Internet)

pwwm

We have adsl with Arrakis, unlimited for about 38 euros a month and we get all local calls free.
pwwm

kevray

I hope to stay with Tiscali when I move, they appear to be a reasonable price, not sure about coverage but do look at www.tiscali.es
I can't read spanish so may be talking b*%%s
Kevray

Unexpat

Tiscali have a lot of complaints, along with Wanadoo and Ya. Not ones I would personally recommend, but your mileage may vary. The root causes of most complaints are too many subscribers overloading capacity and poor resourcing to install/commission services, coupled with poor/expensive user support.

jdr

Stay with telefonica, phone them and ask for free calls pack as on leaflet with bill.
You really didn`t expect them to put in a phone line, and rent you a phone for free did you ?
PS if you change there is a nightmare 2 week change over period.

GCM

My friend who runs a computer shop says that at least with Telefonica - if you have problems they can't blame it on anyone else whereas if you use someone else the two companies often blame each other with you stuck in the middle.

I use Telefonica and pay €40 for the ADSl and approx. €20 for line rental - you really can't avoid it and I doubt if there are really cheaper options (as yet).

Mark

Unexpat

There's dial-up, like I said earlier Not everyone needs broadband if you;re just browsing a few web pages and sending some E-mail. But yes, if you're going with Broadband, that was my advice also - stick with Telefonica.

The other area that you may have problems with with other suppliers is billing and that is a very frustrating area to be playing piggy in the middle when there are wolves at the front and back door

meseta

I,too,use Telefonica wireless broadband.
It may not be the cheapest but in my experience it's worked flawlessly since I started with it a couple of years ago. No complaints !

Mitzyboy

I rely heavily on the internet for a lot of things so I'll be getting broadband when I get there. I have a friend in Salou who is very much into IT, and he says the Telefonica broadband is very unreliable, depending on how new the exchange is.
I'm sure he told me the other day that a lot of people in his area are converting to Satelite broadband ... anyone know if thats a reasonable alternative?

jdr

I know someone who had it in Mijas, slow as hell and expensive.

Unexpat

My brother has it out in the wilds and I'd certainly agree with that. You'd almost be better off with dial-up, for speed and you'd save a bundle. Satellite internet has high latency so it's not very good for Voice over IP (Internet Telephony), or real-time gaming (for the younger amongst you ).

New exchanges kitted out by Telefonica for ADSL are alwasy going to have teething problems. Also bear in mind that all other ADSL ISPs use Telefonica's infrastructure, some more than others, and are therefore subject to the impact.

ADSL2 and RADSL are additional technologies that add more instability to services as the network and exchanges are upgraded over time.

If you are really looking for an alternative to ADSL, I would suggest a wireless (radio) service, but I don't know of any ISPs currently providing this in Spain (haven't researched it). If there are some, it's likely to be quite localised in terms of service coverage, but in the UK this is a viable alternative in some areas (along with cable, but again cable tends to be slower than ADSL, in general).