Hi

I am moving to Costa de la Luz, Spain in Feb next year. I have been in touch with telefonica about internet connections and it looks like it will cost about €65 a month for both interenet and phone. Thing is I dont want the phone line and so this is quite expensive. Is there an alternative to this, apart from going to the interenet cafe? I have heard you can connect through your moble phone (of which I have a Spanish sim with Vodaphone) but dont know how expensive this will be. Thanks for your help.

Yes it is possible. there are a few here that use it and I am sure they will reply when they log on.
Not sure of the cost though, there are also free wifi spots about.

Vodafone, Orange and Movistar all offer USB data cards for use with a laptop or desktop PC. 1GB per month with Movistar is 30 euro IIRC, 60 euro for unlimited. I believe all operators also offer a PAYG version, although then you'll pay more for the data card and bandwidth.

Be warned: check coverage in your area - we can only get Movistar where we are in the mountains, no Vodafone or Orange for several kms in all directions.

3G and 3.5G speeds on the data cards are almost ADSL levels (up to 3.6Mbps). Of course, up here in the mountains, it only works at GPRS speeds - which means I also have a 70cm SkyDSL dish giving me up to 4Mbps downloads for 9.99 euros a month. SkyDSL is easy to set up - as long as you've got a good view of the southern sky - and a PC. I've had to fiddle quite a bit to get it working on my Mac!

You may also have WiFi available - check with the locals, you'll be surprised how many places have it.