The search function is down, so cant add my question to the pack if a thread already exists. Has anyone got an update on how best to get some sort of coverage?

camposat.com for free UKTV

Hola

If you´ve got internet, and a PC or equivalent, then wise money says use Film-On until the dust has settled.

There are many threads on many forums, lots of people have favourites. Most Internet Providers are having trouble to supply the bandwidth - most plan to upgrade their system.

Davexf

Is there anything available for folk w/o WiFi. ?

No

Yeah, a really big dish.

Hola

If you mean without internet - no - but if you have internet then connect with a cable is actually preferable to Wi-Fi

Davexf

Without internet then you have very little choice - depends where you are in Ayamonte whether you can get a decent land line to give you an internet connection. If you are on Costa Esuri then your chances are not high, although some of the early communities do have landlines the uncompleted ones may not.
You could have a look at Wimax (Satellite internet) there is an Iberbanda repeater on the outskirts of Ayamonte - but it can work out quite expensive, I believe, for a decent bandwidth and loading limits and requires a long-term contract so is not really an economic option if you are a holiday home visitor.

On the other hand you can get a lot of English language (mainly American content) on Spanish TV, either freeview ( terrestrial) or satellite. If you have a decent digital TV you will usually have the option of switching the soundtrack to 'original' language. So if you just want a bit of mindless entertainment in English then that's the cheapest option - no Corrie or Eastie though and a lot of Top Gear.

If you are on Costa Esuri then you should lobby your community as some communities are exploring the possibility of installing WiFi. I believe the same goes for Isla Canela - but we are not in that area so don't know for certain. Maybe someone from there will respond.

You will find a lot of postings on this and related threads extolling the benefits of Filmon, Camposat, VPN etc etc - they all miss the point that you need a good internet connection - which means a decent fixed link, which means an additional quite significant cost, long-term contract and monthly payments. Not always economically possible for many of us particularly in the Ayamonte Club catchment area.

If you are a "community" of mainly British/Irish residents, why not put up a community dish? Most of the big hotels catering to Brits have huge dishes here. Besides, you wouldn't need the high capacity broadband that seems so elusive.

The parts alone aren't horribly expensive. It's the large dish and mounting it that is a challenge. Splitting the signal into many feeds requires a switcher box. Assuming you need say, 50 feeds, you should be able to do it for about €2000 plus installation. Once you have the dish installed and aligned, adding more feeds is simply adding more switcher boxes. That wouldn't be all that much between you. I reckon community politics could be the biggest challenge though.

Hi this is an idea, but where we are at the edge of Europe, with the new satellites focussed on a smaller area around UK - then the dish would have to be enormous... as mentioned on this thread.

I think the only solution is a broadband connection that is unlimited if one wants to watch even say an hour a day. With that in mind I started the thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=829560 .

The hotels, with the dishes, are they as far away as us, and do you know how big their dishes are please? 2K isnt a lot, as you say, but that doesnt sound like a big dish.

Also with the amazing winds we have had here especially last night, you'd need some amazing fixing too....

Jon

It would need to be bigger than 3.4m which is not pulling in signal on the Algarve. That's a serious structural requirement even if it was ground mounted and having seen the damage wrought by the recent tornadoe across CE you would need good insurance to cover the damage to others when it landed!