When we were in Spain in 2012 we used Telefonica and like most monopolies it was at times 'take it or leave it' and our local office was less than helpful. Exactly like BT before the duopoly.

Having now completed the rental for the villa we have turned our attention to internet connections and the owner does indeed have a contract with Europa (maybe have changed their names)

I need (as best Spain is able to provide) good bandwidth as I send legal documents back to the UK on a regular basis.

Just had a look at Europa and reviews seem as many bad as good?

Anyone please have direct experience of them? I must admit went into their Javea office once and was not terribly impressed. There was talk about 'good and bad air' on the mountain where their masts are located.

Then please Swiss cable in Javea any thoughts?

Best wishes for the holiday season

The real problem is that Movistar (Telefonica) own the copper wire - so any one else has to rent this from them. It also means that the fastest any one else can offer is limited by Movistar.

Another option is to look at fibre optic (if available) or WiMax.

I have been with Europa for about five years but we do not have a mast, we receive ADSL and phone through the landline. The speed is consistent and always near what I pay for, the technical support on the two occasions I have used it have been quick and even called me back to make sure everything was ok.

I can only speak as I find and am very satisfied with the service.

HTH

I am in Javea. I looked into it and ended-up with Movistar.

One year on there has been one outage due to an electrical storm blowing up the router, so that's more to do with the wiring at my place than anything Movistar are involved in. I called them at midday and they were offering to attend at 4pm. I couldn't be home at that time so we arranged for 11am the following day. He arrived at 11am.

Personally, I would not trust a wireless solution.

thanks to everyone

If you have the option of going with Moviestar (ie ADSL) then do it. I'm not saying they're great, but they're better than the others.

We've been with Movistar for 11 years & have never really had any problems - however when we moved a year ago our fairly consistent 6 to 10 meg became a consistent less than 2meg

A new company has recently been launched by the owner of Europa - BLU Blu So Easy Home - Blu So Easy

Some of my friends have switched to them & are really happy - there are hiccups as with any new service, but they seem to be really responsive & sort things out quickly - & since we're moving (again) next week & never actually use the landline, I've had BLU wifi installed in the new place

I contracted for 10meg & it was installed on Monday - I did a speedtest at 12meg !! There's nothing but clear blue sky & sea between my teeny tiny dish on the roof & the mast - & they say that they are limiting the number of users per mast, so that shouldn't change much - only time will tell I guess

But it can't really get worse than the 2meg I've suffered the last year & it's less than half the monthly cost

Thanks Lynne looking from the Port Area to the mast not a problem - yes legal wise I worked for Cable and Wireless Plc but it is what happens to the mast and after care that matters.

Still I will set something up with them. Moviestar up in the old Town area had I think a Bulgarian and his partner. This is not racist it just sets out the scenario. Essentially if the computer says no then sorry and overall it was a bad place.

We even agreed I would give him French books(he wanted to speak French) so we could try to chat In French. He gave them back after a week

When I moved in I didn't want a landline so I got swisscable internet only. No problems to report and I get what I pay for, 5 megs. Not tried the wimax type services.

Used to live near Swisscable. Lots of people waiting outside their door to complain. So after service is fine? Of course their receiving dish as in huge microwave is down the road from their office.

thanks once more

Amena offer a 100Gb (5Gb for downloads) 4G service, which could be a viable alternative for some people:

Tarifas internet 4G - Descubre la red 4G con Amena en casa

I can only talk from my own experience, the only time I had a problem, I popped into the office (there were no queues!) and they sent an engineer within the hour to fix my problem, at no cost.

Their service suits me as I only wanted internet provision and didn't want the extra costs a phone line would bring.

I pay for 5mb and get 5mb.

That is fine and one can only base your response on personal experiences - hence this site. We lived on an urbanisation and five metres from our villa was their nice new box. We received eight promises of putting the service in. Many excuses such as no one here cannot get a machine. We went elsewhere

But in fairness this can and does happen elsewhere and certainly in France where we lived.

Of course the copper in the ground in Spain is owned by telephonica and I think that in such cases fibre apart from the major cities is some time away?

But of course Telephonica has some involvement with O2 in the UK. Surprising is it not that our big hitters do not want to get involved in either Spain or France and slug it out. Better pickings elsewhere.

Blu have announced fibre in Javea but don't have any timescales or locations as yet