Eve

Information required please.
I need to find a way of having Internet in my house, Cómpeta southern spain without a landline. Has anyone got experience of dongles either from a Spanish or UK provider? Thank you

pete_l

I'm in a similar situation, though I now have a solution.

Leaving out the option of getting a satellite connection (slow, expensive, ludicrously low data limits) there are two possibilities.

First is a 3G / HSDPA dongle. Second (which I have) is a WiMax (or AirMax) wireless internet link.

Dongles first. Before you leap in, check you can get a mobile phone signal with reasonable strength. You'll need to know which mobile provider your signal comes from. I used Vodafone. After that you have a choice of either committing to a monthly contract, or a pay-as-you-go (prepago in Spain) dongle. Each will have a monthly data allowance. The contract will be cheaper, but you run the risk of extortionate charges if you exceed the monthly data allowance. PAYG means you have to recharge your dongle's SIM with a new "bono" of data - either every month (unused data allowance is lost) or after you've used up the previous bono's worth. Recharging can be done from the phone company's website with a credit card, in the phone shop, or by adding credit to the dongle's phone number whereever you can recharge mobile SIMs. You'll also need a phone you can put the SIM in, to send a text to turn the dongle's SIM credit into a new "bono". Speed-wise, it depends on the level of signal you get. Better signals == faster & more reliable connections. If you can get an HSDPA connection, it'll be faster still.

The alternative is to see if any of your neighbours have a smallish, circular dish poking out anywhere. These are about 8 inches diameter, and won't be pointing skywards (so not pointing at a satellite). Installing one of these, plus some small boxes in your house (and a wire connecting them all) will give you a home phone and an internet connection to any and all wifi-enabled computers, phones, tablets, pets you have in your house. (You can do this with a 3G dongle with a little faffing about). There are generally no data limits and the speed you get will depend on how close your house is to the WiMax central point. Speeds can be from about 1MBit/sec up to 10MBit/sec - depending on closeness and how much you're willing to pay every month. Installation costs are higher than for a dongle - about €100.

I've found that the data limits on a 3G dongle are OK, so long as all you want to do is send text emails, read some excellent forums and look at some website - you won't be watching much Youtube, downloading the latest films, or catching up on iPlayer - the data limit is too small for this. Also, the latency is quite long, so if your children are into gaming they won't appreciate it. Also, the 3G connections are prone to dropping out at inconvenient times.

Domino

Don't have a dongle, but have a wireless telephone and internet service from Cable Sur http://www.cablesur.es/boss/sites/ca...Menu.jsp?mID=4
on their JetNet service http://jetnet.es/

we have an aerial pointing to a mast in the next village.
On the rare occasions we have needed assistance they usually find someone who can speak English so you can get the problem across without difficulty.

Countryboy1

I'm on the Northern CB, and the local papers printed in English, the free ones and the Costa Blanca News are full of companies advertising 'Internet without a landline', usually through wireless to a local transmitter.
Check the papers in your area and ask the companies can they provide a service for you.
If you can't find any, that might point to no wireless services, but as I don't know your area I can't comment further.

Eve

Thank you for the info, I will be looking into the dongle route I think. I'm not in spain all the time so a pay as you go will probably be best. It is only for e mails really to keep in touch . Thank you but any more info gratefully accepted.

Mitzyboy

If you get WIMAX as mentioned above (we have it) you can get the service suspended when you are not here and charged at a low rate. Our current one is with Aeromax and we pay €7 a month when we are not here, just over €30 a month for telephone and internet with free calls to Spanish landlines and UK landlines

frigilianafreddy

Broadband4spain or nerjasolutions for the wifi option. I use it as PAYG, so costs about €40 a month when i'm out. In Frigiliana i get about 2MBS speed.

Matusa1978

I live in Coin in the campo,cant get a telephone line.I used a dongle for years but iv now gone over to a mifi which is a dongle and a router in 1 i can connect 5 of my devices at 1 time and the best bit is i take it out with me as it has a 5 hour battery life so i have my own personal hospot.
Its a great little thing and my monthly payment is the same as it was for my dongle and my dongle i couldnt use with my ipad.Im with Midas Telecom i think im paying around 30 euros for 10gb which is a great deal,
They have a freefone number which i can find for u,Go for the mifi u wont be dissapointed:

Eve

Thank you , I will look into all of these,mother last one sounds good.

Eve

Whoops spelling mistake....... It should read the last one sounds good.

Matusa1978

Found it 900 901 091

Matusa1978

I have another number this was the lady that sorted my mifi, 634331640

chrisjolly

Can sort out her mifi?