Internet access
Oct 21st 2008, 10:52 am
#16
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Leigh, Lancs. Ex Valencia!
Posts: 1,778
Re: Internet access
I think you will find that the dongle costs €69 to buy, then you buy top-ups on top at €60 a time I believe. That credit is then valid for up to 3 months, but won't last long with heavy usage as a contract connection is about €60 per month.
Oct 21st 2008, 11:19 pm
#17
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 614
Re: Internet access
The deal is as follows.
You buy the dongle. Vodafone have two on offer, the €59 one mentioned and
another at €69 (incl. IVA). While the more expensive one has a better
technical specification, it's largely wasted as Vodafone limit the speed to a
maximum of 1M bit/second - so you can't take advantage of the higher
speeds.
Either of these two dongles comes with 150Mbyte of usage. This is the total
of data you send and data you receive (though in practice people receive
more than they send). So if you send 1MByte to access websites and receive
11 MByte back, that counts as 12MByte off your 150 MByte allocation. I
found that in the 10 days after I got my dongle, I used about 120MByte, but in
fairness a significant amount of that was when all my software discovered it
had an internet connection and started downloading updates - without my
realising, grrrr. Having said that, even loading the front page on the BBC
website uses over 1 MByte.
If you're not a heavy user and don't need 150MB, anything you haven't used
after 3 months is lost.
To top up, you have 4 options:
- an extra 150MB, this costs €19 incl. IVA and lasts another 3 months
- an extra 400MB. This costs €39 and lasts 3 months
- an extra 1000MB. This will cost €59 and lasts 3 months
- an unlimited amount of megabytes, this costs €59 and lasts one month
SIM in the dongle and a phone number as well. You can send SMS from the
dongle - but not voice calls. You buy credit for the phone number as
usual: in a shop, by phone or from vodafone's internet site (the spanish site,
not the english one). Then you send an SMS from the dongle to to say
how much of the credit you want transferred into megabytes, as above The
code you send states which option you buy.
Oct 22nd 2008, 5:20 am
#18
RETIRED ;-))
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Benalmadena Pueblo,Spain
Posts: 20,156
Re: Internet access
Well worth a Karma. 
Oct 22nd 2008, 7:54 am
#19
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Naranja Groves looking at the mountain
Posts: 490
Re: Internet access
The deal is as follows.
You buy the dongle. Vodafone have two on offer, the €59 one mentioned and
another at €69 (incl. IVA). While the more expensive one has a better
technical specification, it's largely wasted as Vodafone limit the speed to a
maximum of 1M bit/second - so you can't take advantage of the higher
speeds.
Either of these two dongles comes with 150Mbyte of usage. This is the total
of data you send and data you receive (though in practice people receive
more than they send). So if you send 1MByte to access websites and receive
11 MByte back, that counts as 12MByte off your 150 MByte allocation. I
found that in the 10 days after I got my dongle, I used about 120MByte, but in
fairness a significant amount of that was when all my software discovered it
had an internet connection and started downloading updates - without my
realising, grrrr. Having said that, even loading the front page on the BBC
website uses over 1 MByte.
If you're not a heavy user and don't need 150MB, anything you haven't used
after 3 months is lost.
To top up, you have 4 options:
SIM in the dongle and a phone number as well. You can send SMS from the
dongle - but not voice calls. You buy credit for the phone number as
usual: in a shop, by phone or from vodafone's internet site (the spanish site,
not the english one). Then you send an SMS from the dongle to to say
how much of the credit you want transferred into megabytes, as above The
code you send states which option you buy.
You buy the dongle. Vodafone have two on offer, the €59 one mentioned and
another at €69 (incl. IVA). While the more expensive one has a better
technical specification, it's largely wasted as Vodafone limit the speed to a
maximum of 1M bit/second - so you can't take advantage of the higher
speeds.
Either of these two dongles comes with 150Mbyte of usage. This is the total
of data you send and data you receive (though in practice people receive
more than they send). So if you send 1MByte to access websites and receive
11 MByte back, that counts as 12MByte off your 150 MByte allocation. I
found that in the 10 days after I got my dongle, I used about 120MByte, but in
fairness a significant amount of that was when all my software discovered it
had an internet connection and started downloading updates - without my
realising, grrrr. Having said that, even loading the front page on the BBC
website uses over 1 MByte.
If you're not a heavy user and don't need 150MB, anything you haven't used
after 3 months is lost.
To top up, you have 4 options:
- an extra 150MB, this costs €19 incl. IVA and lasts another 3 months
- an extra 400MB. This costs €39 and lasts 3 months
- an extra 1000MB. This will cost €59 and lasts 3 months
- an unlimited amount of megabytes, this costs €59 and lasts one month
SIM in the dongle and a phone number as well. You can send SMS from the
dongle - but not voice calls. You buy credit for the phone number as
usual: in a shop, by phone or from vodafone's internet site (the spanish site,
not the english one). Then you send an SMS from the dongle to to say
how much of the credit you want transferred into megabytes, as above The
code you send states which option you buy.
Oct 22nd 2008, 7:57 am
#20
Just Joined
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 7
Re: Internet access
Yes thanks great info
Oct 22nd 2008, 8:03 am
#21
Ex Expat
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: West Midlands, ex Granada province
Posts: 2,140
Nov 14th 2008, 1:21 pm
#22
Just Joined
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 7
Re: Internet access
My husband is in Playa Flamenca just now and went to buy the Vodaphone dongle but they are sold out, not expecting more until next week.
Nov 15th 2008, 11:14 pm
#23
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Naranja Groves looking at the mountain
Posts: 490
Re: Internet access
Do you need to be in a hot spot area for dongles to work ??How can I find out if Algorfa is in a hot spot ????
Sorry to be so ill informed , I only use PCs after they are set up for me havent a clue really other than typing with two fingers
I really would hate to be in Spain with no PC.
Sorry to be so ill informed , I only use PCs after they are set up for me havent a clue really other than typing with two fingers
I really would hate to be in Spain with no PC.
