Kenwoodlad

When we first bought our house over five years ago, the estate agency provided a sort of gestor service and set up things for us like electricity, water and phone. The phone line and broadband were provided by Telefonica but there was an add-on service from a company called Direct Telecom who provide us with cheap calls to and from the UK. When we dial a number here in Spain, some magic prefixes the number with a four digit code which then routes the call via Direct Telecom and we only pay 3 cents a minute. In the UK, they provide an 08445 number that is used by family and friends to call us for 3p a minute. This has worked well for the past five years.

We have recently had an email from Direct Telecom advising us that a law has been passed in Spain prohibiting this service (the automatic prefixing of dialled numbers with a code) and if we want to continue to get cheap calls after July, we have to transfer our landline to them. I am worried that if we do that we will lose our broadband service which I need for work online to the UK.

I emailed Direct Telecom and asked if they knew how this might affect our broadband and they were less than helpful, telling me to speak to Telefonica and see what they said. I'm afraid all past communications with Telefonica have been less than successful so I was wondering if anyone of the forum has done this - move the landline away from Telefonica but still kept their broadband service?

marcbernard

Yes. I have used Direct Telecom (both phone and ADSL and UK TV) for years and have a satisfaction rating of more than 90%. I have always found their personnel helpful, and at present they are (said to be) investigating ways around the recent introduction of compulsory additions to Telefonica's line charges. They are based in Tenerife which means no local office (on Costa Blanca North) but have not found this a dire situation.

Kenwoodlad

Thanks for the information. I don't want to risk being without broadband so I'll see if there's any other way to make cheap phonecalls to the UK without switching the landline.

marcbernard

You do not change the landline by going with DT. Take a good look at the website direct-telecom.es.