scampicat

Right, we asked Telefonica if we could have their ADSL package which has been available in our village since January and several other expats already have.

We have been told we can't as our line is 'different'. They can't tell us how it is different. We pay the same line rental etc as everyone else! My husband said 'so we are the only ones who can't have this ADSL' and they said yes

All they can offer us is a more expensive ASDL packages than our neighbours which is the same speed as our existing modem. And we should have that why?

Does anyone know how our line may be 'different' to everybody else's and what we can do to get Telefonica to give us the ASDL service (other than send them on a course in Customer Services)?

valenciatim

Did you have the line installed or was it already there?
Have you checked the availability on their website for your phone number?
It may be that Telefonica are being their usual helpful selves(!), or it could be that adsl is not physically possible on your line.
I take it that you have a standard landline and not a TRAC phone (the box on the wall with a small aerial)?
Regards
Tim

SoJohn

Hmm. In England I once had a similar problem. Sometimes if they are short on lines they kinda split your line with someone elses.

brisca

Oh dear

That does sound pretty ridiculous!
You've had quite a few of these non-sensical " bureaucratic" situations to deal with, haven't you?

I can only suggest that you phone Telefonica back again (repeatedly if you have to!) and ask them to explain what this "difference" is.
Maybe ask to speak to a supervisor, if you don't get anywhere with the initial operator.
Or, perhaps next time you see a Telefonica engineer in your village, you could ask him to explain?

We have phoned several times to ask about upgrading our ADSL speed from 1mb to 3mb, but we keep being told it's not available in our village yet.
However, we're not convinced - especially as our friendly Telefonica engineer told us in the supermaket that he was sure it WAS available where we live!
Sometimes it makes you wonder whether Telefonica don't want to put themselves out too much!?
Having said that, we can't complain about their levels of service to date.

Hope you have some success soon.
It's one of the most frustrating things about the channels for doing things in Spain, isn't it - sometimes you are just met with that "no can do" look, and you're expected to just accept it without question!
At least if something isn't possible, it makes you feel better if you understand the reason WHY!

freddied

Although I've yet to move - and I've read lots of comments here about Telefonica (!) - I was told this at the weekend by someone living inland from Alicante. I have not checked out the company yet, but it might be of some help:

"Broadband can be installed to an existing telephone line in about 7
days by a Company called Novelda"

freddie

scampicat

Hello, thank you for all your replies.

Our phone is a perfectly normal phone the same as everyone else's. We had it installed three years ago whern we came here.

We asked to speak to a supervisor and we could not do that either.

How do I check the availability of our number on the website? And why would ASDL not be possible on our line when it is on other peoples' (this is precisely what Telefonica are saying, but won't say why).

Yes Brisca, we have come up against some awful bureaucracy in other situations too. At least we are not too upset about this one, just baffled! It's as though they are doing us a favour by relieving us of our euros to pay for their service, and we shouldn't be so forward as to ask for an explanation. TBH, I think that some of these firms imagine that they are still in the days of Franco, when the peasants had to be kept down and they could give crap service with no explanation.

We'll try again in a few days time. Watch this space.......

scampicat

Hi, and thank you for your reply.

There are other companies that can do Broadband, but afaik they all depend upon the Telefonica line. Which is where we came in....

valenciatim

If you go to http://www.telefonicaonline.com/on/p...OG&v_idioma=es

and put in your phone number, it should show whether or not ADSL is available.
It may be that you are just that little bit too far away from the exchange to get ADSL, or that the cabling is not up to the relevant quality. In either case, as long as your line is a standard line, you should be able to get ADSL Rural but only up to about half a meg speedwise.
Regards
Tim

mikelincs

However, they need a Telefonica line, so you are at the mercy of Telefonica, and if you get you BB from another company, they if there is a line fault, Telefonica are very slow to repair, whereas if you are with Telefonica, repairs are much quicker. Despite all the negative comments, we have had NO PROBLEMS whatever with Telefonica since our line was fully installed, dialup we used one of their plans, and then mover to ADSL, as we are moving shortly we have contacted them, and been told that it will take 15 to 21 days to transfer our line from here to our new place just down the road, they said that existing subscribers take precedence over new ones.

jdr

Check on number in free beer thread................

scampicat

Thanks, I will check.

However, our neighbours round the corner (30 second's walk) have got it......

LATER:

Here is the result of my search. As far as I can see, it still doesn't say WHY it is not suitable for ADSL?

Disponibilidad del servicio ADSL
Resultado de la consulta

Actualmente, el servicio ADSL no se encuentra disponible para la línea *********

Por favor realice una nueva búsqueda por domicilio para comprobar otras coberturas especiales de Banda Ancha>>

STILL LATER:

SEarched on Address, it says we can have ADSLRural.

Still doesn't explain why all our nrighbours have it...

Thanks for that informative link.

spanishfamily

We were told on the phone by Telefonica that we couldn't have adsl and our phone number was turned down when we entered it into the search box on their website. But we bumped into some phone engineers outside the neighbour's house who told us that it would be no problem ( I think they said that if you were within three km from the village it would be OK) and that we should tell Telefonica that! I phoned them again, they came to install the router and the line has (except in windy weather!) worked OK. So if you see a Telefonica or Cobra van nearby, ask them!

scampicat

Thanks, thanks, that is useful information, will try that.....we are in the village, albeit on the edge of it, but the people at Telefonica won't have it!

Welcome to the forum, by the way

Johanna

we have tried for two years to get adsl in our house in Mallorca our direct neighbour has it and accross the road and two others in our culde sac but us no it is not possible in our area to have adsl so i asked ,asked, asked, one time yes no probs next no not possible, even went down the road of signing up with another provider but the last 5m are owned by telefonica so even if someone says yes when they get right down to it telefonica blocks it at the end!!

so to cut a long story short.... They said yes again then phoned to say no but we could have adsl rural but it has no offers free local calls etc but i really needed it so we took it. I have since found out that the reason they are not giving it out at present is they sold a deal to customers say guaranteeing them 1mb but it never got to that and some people are taking them to court so hey have had to stop sales on the offer lines in some areas untill they can upgrade the lines and in some cases hey say there is no bandwidth left........so how can a coutry with so many other up to date ideas not get broadband right it is a manjana thing!!! :curse:

mrcusa

What 10 years ago? ADSL in its' infancy?

My experience with Telefonica is that they are crap!

Martin