laslopeady

Hi
I know this has been discussed before but I can't find the old thread .
Can anyone tell me what is the best current deal is for internet access via a PAYG dongle in the Costa Esuri/ Ayamonte/ Villa Real areas?
Many Thanks
Laslo Peady

bobd22

To be honest it depends upon what 3G signal you can get (and this is different to normal mobile signal) once you know that you can look around. I am not in your area but when I am out there I use Masmovil which is quite reasonable they use Orange as a provider as do Carrefour I believe there are others that Use Vodafone as a provider. Just remember that you will get the same service as if using the main provider direct just not pay as much for the privilege.

guesswork

Hi

My apartment is on Las Encinas at Esuri, over 1 mile to the golf club. Last week I tried a TMN dongle thru a WiFi router made for a dongle. I got an instant signal.

They do an unlimited Use Contract one for 30 euros per month as well as a PAYG one. From the TMN shop in Villareal

EsuriJohn

Until I got a permant solution via Iberbanda I used a dongle a Portuguese one from Vodafone PT from my terrace you can see three masts in Portugal and these provide excellent signal in Esuri over a number of providers. The reason I went to Portugal for the dongle was the choice and that you did not need to take a monthly contract and excellent coverage over most of Esui and Ayamonte. At the time large areas of Esuri got poor service from Spanish providers and even now my Spanish mobile hunts to Portugal at the GC and Jags. Take great care to ensure that your house can pick up a consistant 3G signal. If you live full time on Esuri then a landline solution from Movistar might be available as far east as Lomas elsewhere you may be able to get Iberbanda if you have line of sight to the mast in the Fish Farm.

The CERA are pushing for Fadesa to allow a new Spanish mast at the Golf Club which should give much improved coverage. There are other systems coming along as well so in a short time other options may be available. I don't think the main consideration at the moment is absolute cost but consistent coverage.

laslopeady

Many thanks for your advice.Can you tell me were the TMN shop is in VRSA.
Ta

guesswork

Sorry I do not know but the info I supplied is correct

MikeJ

If you go to the top of the main pedestrian street (the one with the Post Office) and turn left at the end of the pedestrian area then it is on your left.

Jon-Bxl

Hi I just noticed that (unfortunately) TMN require you to recharge the dongle every 3 months (use or lose). Previously it was 6 months. So I would recharge just before leaving and the whole balance was valid for 6 months.... It should be OK normally but sometimes there may be a delay of longer.


Does anyone know if this can be recharged on the internet please?

Thanks
Jon

MikeJ

TMN now have a G4 dongle which claims 100Mb bandwidth. Not sure if the signal is good for Costa Esuri but it should have the same coverage as G3

Jon-Bxl

Ive seen the new one. Ive been delighted with the TMN dongle - happy to stick with it - a little peeved that theyve made it a 3 month renewal, but will buy the new one if they have the ability to pay on the internet. Do you know if they do?

Shame as I think in most countries you can reload on the internet....... cheaper for them than to have a string of payshops etc to give commission to.

MikeJ

I think you may be able to add funds on line - but the web site is Portuguese only, google translate doesn't seem to help - so I don't know how to do it.

Jon-Bxl

Thanks Mike for checking it out - I got nowhere either. I saw on another expat site that one can do it online with a Portuguese online bank account. So I will check it out and hit on a certain Portuguese friend of ours!

chapel

I have a Yoigo dongle (Spanish) which works well for us, although I am in Isla Canela not Esuri. With regard to top up, I can do it from the UK and Spain online with UK registered debit card, just when I get to postcode request box, I use my Spanish one and the rest is my English address which the card is registered to. Seems crazy but works fine!

cleverdic

We use an Orange dongle in Isla Canela and tend to buy PAYG 1 month topups from the small Orange shop next to the Mercadona supermercado. Cost 35 euros for 2GB. We've had tremendous problems in the past getting the 1 month deal. Some of the assistants in the shop have blankly refused to believe the 1 month deal exists and we've had to leave empty handed only to return later.

For the last topup, I got the assistant to write down in Spanish the exact steps they need to perform in order to process the deal. I have online access but it is not clear if I would have the same problem as the ordering system does not specifically offer the 1 month deal as an option.

For the last trip and because of the lousy Orange support, I went along to Carrefour to enquire about their PAYG internet offering but the assistant seemed to describe a different product to the one I saw on their website so I didn't proceed. I might try to order online as Carrefour use the Orange network which I know works where we are but it also appears to give daily topups equivalent to the 1 month Orange deal so we can tailor the timespan.

We seem to get good coverage at most times of the year but it dipped sharply last August. I suspect it was because of the influx of holidaymakers playing with their dongles!

Jon-Bxl

I have been delighted with the TMN internet dongle. I believe its been the best internet service Ive seen for a PAYG system in Europe.

We are often in Portugal so topping up is easy at a PO or payshop. It works fine for Skype so we use it for calls as well.... we are not heavy internet users downloading all the time so I cant comment on speeds etc. But we like the fact that its 1 euro for 1 hour no download limit. The download limit is 'limited' (in GB of data) by the speed of the dongle only. Also a bit of managing and one can dowload eg email and switch off, reply in the outbox, re-connect for a little bit and disconnect again. Thus the hours can last a long time, with a bit of management.

So when I heard that they had changed the 6 month rule to 3 months I was disappointed, as it is possible that many people can go 3 months without being here. Now any balance on the PAYG is left open till a 3 month limt (use or lose).

In this case if they only had a system of top up on the internet with a credit card the account credit could be kept open and it would not be a problem. We should be OK and we have friends that would do it for us at a payshop if we are ever out longer than 3 months - so we are OK.....

But I wanted to highlight the fact that its now 3 months as I got the TMNdongle as a result of info on the forum and I know many others did as well.

Again excellent internet product and Ive never had a problem with it - the best in Europe - so far that Ive seen .....