As we plan to ramp up the amount of times we come over to Spain to get more familiar with the areas I need to find the best way to enable me to do casual work when there. When I was over a few weeks ago I used my Orange UK phone and was charged something like £2.49 per 1MB of data used (only used 14MB on this occasion) so I really need to find something better. What about a Spanish PAYG dongle of some sort? Ideas welcome. Thanks.

Scrap that, I must use search more! I am guessing Simyo and Masmovil would be worth investigating still?

There are many internet cafes near us and they are very cheap.

Silly question but, do mobiles pick up a wifi free signal for internet at the wifi free zones or does it still cost ?

I don't use WiFi mobile, maybe someone who does can confirm? I would suggest that it will still be charged by your mobile provider. You would be free if you had a WiFi enabled laptop or a skype phone

As long as your phone has wifi then you could use it on free wifi locations with no charges from your provider as it's not using there network in any way. If your phone doesnt have wifi built in then you'll be using the cellular network for any data and will be charged by your provider.

Have a look at this conversation on the Ayamonte forum.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=626818

At Ayamonte there is the complication of the border but it will give you an idea of prices