Spanish Internet Dongles

[chasroberts]

Does anybody have any recommendations/information re internet dongles in Spain, please?

Pay monthly would be best but unlimited access is required.

Heading out there this weekend until Easter and need to be able to keep reading YBW forums (fora?).

Many thanks

Chas

 

[GSL]

I spent two days getting a Dongle sorted out in July, I was in Marbella at the time and planing on going back up the coast to Sant Carles.

The first one I bought was from Vodaphone, and was useless.

The second one was more expensive, pay as you go, but was from Movistar and works very well.

Afterwards, a number people told me that the Vodaphone dongle system did not work at all well, so I suggest stay away from them

Graham

 

[phanakapan]

I've been using Orange successfully in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. Costs something like 30 euros for the dongle and 35 euros a month - I'm not sure if it's unlimited but I've not been able to 'spend' all my credit. You are supposed to be able to top up on line but the Orange website doesn't seem to want to take my English debit card- I just pop in the shop and pay cash, then SMS Orange from the computer to activate another month.

 

[LadyInBed]

Kindle g3 is the way I intend to go to get weather and look at mail.

 

[rib]

can only speak as ive found,but my vodafone spanish bought has been great,signal nearly every where(97%),some times strong enough for skype,while anchored,use marinas wifi when in port,sailed from plymouth all the way round to barcelona using it for weather and family contact.

 

[westernman]

can only speak as ive found,but my vodafone spanish bought has been great,signal nearly every where(97%),some times strong enough for skype,while anchored,use marinas wifi when in port,sailed from plymouth all the way round to barcelona using it for weather and family contact.

+1 for Vodaphone pay as you go.

 

[chasroberts]

Many thanks to all so far. Keep the ideas coming if you have them.

Chas

 

[jordanbasset]

can only speak as ive found,but my vodafone spanish bought has been great,signal nearly every where(97%),some times strong enough for skype,while anchored,use marinas wifi when in port,sailed from plymouth all the way round to barcelona using it for weather and family contact.

+2, we paid 50 euros per month for pay as you go unlimited downloads, good coverage, would recommend it

 

[RobbieW]

You say you want unlimited access, I think that'll cost you. There seem to be problems with getting a contract for non residents and even if that can be overcome, many contracts have a longer term than you might want. Two suppliers that do a kind of PAYG/monthly contract hybrid are MasMovil and Yoigo.

I currently have a MasMovil SIM which, if I allow my (UK) credit card to be charged whenever the credit goes down to €5, will get me 1Gb/month for €15. Once youve used the 1Gb in each month you then pay 3c/Mb, we use around 100Mb/day between 2 so it does add up. Just looked at MasMovils website (its also in English and thier operators mostly speak english) and see they have a deal for 5Gb/month at €35 inc tax (again 3c/Mb over the 5Gb). I'll look at transferring to that before we go further East. MasMovil piggybacks on Orange which worked fine from Bilbao to Baiona and in Ayamonte but up the river at Alcoutim I'm using the vodafone.pt SIM (€10/720Mb fixed rate PAYG).

I'd also look at YOIGO which advertise 5Gb for €35 but they dont allow Skype. I'm not sure if I can work around that with my VPN, it depends what range of ports they block. If the MasMovil offer works theres no need to change as they allow Skype.

 

[PlanB]

I know very little about this, but a chum has a Movistar thing called Mifi, which seems to give him reliable, unlimited access. Snag is it's not PAYG, but €29 per month.

 

[duncan99210]

We used to have a Vodafone dongle PAYG in Spain, paid €40 -50 per month for unlimited access and found good coverage everywhere we went from Cartagena (where we bought it) northwards and round most of the Balearics. Top up from news kiosks and tabac shops by giving them your dongle phone number, they enter it on a little terminal and then you SMS Vodafone to activate the top up. Not cheap but resonable service for all that.

 

[Carmel2]

With Duncan on this one, I even got it to work over the Spanish border into France (St Cyprien)

 

[Ional]

We had a vodafone dongle last year, worked brilliantly from Portugese border all the way to Med France, inc Ibiza. Used to connect while sailing with dongle on an extension lead tied to boom! PAYG......top up in shops as already posted. Were asked for our address in Spain when we bought it.....gave marina address. Need passport too.

 

[Jeannius]

May not be what the OP needs but Carrefour have an excellent deal. 1Euro a day for the first 100Mb which is at full speed, after that it drops to 128kb for the rest of the day. I've been using it for the last 6 weeks or so and it is pretty good. Only get charged for days you actually use it subject to a minimum charge of 3 euro/month. Actual service comes from Orange.

They have other deals available as well. Here's a link to an English web page describing the options.... http://prepaid-wireless-internet-access.wetpaint.com/page/Spain+-+carrefour

 

[Eurydice]

Ways to pay beware

There are many local companies and deals to be had. Last year we have a Blau dongle very cheap to buy first month free, 27 euros a month for 2G info we thought really good and reliable until we went to pay for the second money and were told we could only top up by using a bank machine, this would have been ok but it wouldn't accept a british card!! The company we got it off shrugged their shoulders, luckily for us we had friends living nearby who had a Spanish bank account which allowed them to pay each month and we paid them!!

Hope it helps

 

[chasroberts]

Once again, many thanks to all. Keep more thoughts coming if you have them.

Chas

 

[lovezoo]

Another vote for MasMovil as I have found it is consistently cheaper than the likes of Vodaphone & Orange. If you are just going to be here on holiday the PAYG option is not expensive.

 

[LadyInBed]

Another vote for MasMovil

You may find this link and this link interesting

It looks easy - http://www.masmovil.es/tarifa-libre-eng