Hello all

we are renting a finca 5km from the coast in L'Ampolla and don't have a landline. Does anybody know about WIFI or 3G access from Vodafone or Movistar? is it working?

What about satellite internet access? Anybody have any experience with that and can you recommend someone to install this at what cost?

Kind regards
Sabine

As nobody seems to know anything about internet access in this day and age I am posting this here:

I went and got a 3G UMTS card for my laptop from Movistar Telefonica shop in Tarragona. Cost nothing but there is a plana tarifa and I am on 5 GB per month which costs Euros 58. That give you approx. 400 hours of surfing of 14,000 pages to browse which is plenty. As I am a professional using the internet heavily I am on this plan but there is another one available costing Euros 32 per month.

The card is a PCMIA card which slots into the PCI port in your laptop. You install the software and Telefonica will upgrade you to UMTS (which is 384 kbps which is almost ADSL speed) after 15 hours of signing their contract.

It is brilliant and exactly what I was looking for. No need for a landline and much cheaper than the ADSL contract from Telefonicaq which costs around Euros 80 per month if you rent their landline and telephone too.

The bauty of the system I am using is that I can go on the internet anywhere. At the beach, in the car whilst being a passenger, at home, at business meetings....

Hello
I too live 5km from Ampolla in the campo!  and had comms problems before settling on a British satellite system.  Fast ....466 kbps but expensive hardware to buy and monthly subscription.  Have you had the chance to check the speed of your 3G card?   Is it the advertised speed? I'd be interested to know.   If you go to   www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp      you can do a free test; very useful.
Bi.

Hello Colin

I am not that happy with the speed of the 3G card as I was used to broadband in UK. It is supposed to be around 384kbps but in reality it isn't. Very often the speed drops to GPRS which is 54 kbps!! If there are no clouds it's fine, if there are it's not. The signal is very weak in our area. Alas, it's cheap if you are on a contract like 1GB or 5GB....

How much did your satellite connection cost and what is the monthly subsription?

Sabine

I'm always very wary of these advertised speeds - who is out there to check on them and enforce bad practices?   I researched 5 or 6 satellite providers all of which said they covered Spain and advertised in English.  The worst case was a German chap in Malaga saying he could move the world for an absurdly low price. On the other end of the scale was a provider supplying global corporates and t.v. correspondents.   In between were those that interested me.   Every one had a different tarrif structure, a different max allowable monthly upload and download, a different bandwidth and speed.   The amount I pay is probably not too relevant as I'm sure they've changed tarrifs to suit competion but you may want to check out    www.avonline.co.uk     amongst others.     Quoted rates may be about £1000 plus installation  fees ( my English engineer is based in Valencia and wanted to charged £400) but expect also to negotiate the installation fee to be absorbed into the purchase price!!!   The monthly rate may be £100 + vat.    On the other hand we have never had a moment's downtime except when the 240v has failed.  Never.   We are delighted with the regular, constant and reliable speed; Skype works fine - some latency for sure - sometimes better than others but we don't use it for serious business stuff; just family n friends.   We can download updates etc in seconds, which of course ensures we do so.  I'd recommend it if you can justify the expense.

Colin.    (colin@valcol.com)

Hello Sabine,

I share your problem. We have no chance for a telephone line and I need Internet access for business.
If there anybody who has internet access via satellit or experience with a UMTS/3G card?  

Looking forward to any info and will keep you informed if I will find out more.

Ulrike

There is every chance of a Telefonica "land-line".  The issue is this phrase.   You will never get copper wire to your finca if you're in the campo but you should expect Telefonica to supply you with an alternative - viz, what I call a radio phone ( because it isn't a cell phone but it has a SIM card) and works where there isn't a cell signal.   Dial 1004 from a mobile.  I haven't got all the options here to hand but you should be able to get to an English speaking desk and ask for a phone.  They'll say you are rediculous expecting them to install a radio phone when you do not have a street number or an address  but you say that as they can't supply a copper wire you demand an alternative.  It took us three years but we now have a 977 number in the campo.......we still buy Mundo cards from the Tobac ( 250 minutes of international calls for 6 euros!!) and we still use satellite for cruising the Internet.   Keep at it and you will win; they will try to tell you it is impossible but it isn't.  If you know a Spanish speaker then use them, bribe them, kidnap them.....you can get a phone.  good luck.

A friend of mine has just had Telefonica install a land line with a satellite dish on his finca for free, apparently a special offer!!! (pardon my ignorance but i live in a village and like my home comforts)

I will ask him him how he achieved this amazing task and get back to you all.

Jools

This was covered some time ago in the thread Connected at last!

As long as you can see mont caro, you can have a satellite dish put on your house for free and get both broadband internet and a telephone line. It is free installation, with different pricing options for different speeds. They usually install within a week.

Sorry, but I heard that one about Mount Caro approx. 2 years ago and it never materialised for us!

Jools, if you can let me know how your friend achieved this - I'll buy you a drink next time we meet! In particular a phone number would be nice.....

Kind regards
Sabine

Hi Sabine,

Have sent you a private message.

Jools

How does one send a respondent a 'private' message please?       Colin.

Just click on the  PM icon under your thread and go from there.

We apreciate this is slightly off topic but we can see  mont caro, as we will be in the Bitem area. Does any one have any contacts/prices in English for the installation of this service.
Also is it possible to get connected to house with no postal address!
any input appreciated

pacmjc

If you can see Mt. Caro aerials then you should be able to get an Avinet connection via microwave. You have the option of internet only or internet plus phone.  The internet connection comes in various speeds from 256K (not guaranteed speed) upwards - the more you pay the more (in theory) you get.

The cost for the most basic is 29€ per month. Not sure of all the other costs - it was 10€ a month for the phone + calls but that may have gone up.

If you go to the Telefonica shop at the end of Tortosa (near the Millenium bridge) then they will sort you out with a contract etc. but they don't speak English!

Nigel

Thanks we will give them a try end of next month.
Mike

YES IT IS.     If you can see Deltebre then go into the computer shop in the same road as Mercadona (further down on the other side) take your bank details, fill in a form.  10-14 days later you'll get a call from a technician ( company = Sotechnic I think) he'll run up onto the roof, screw on an antenna, point it at Deltebre, plug a cable into your compoota, configure it and shoot off.   You should then be on broadband wi-fi.  I applied for 1 megabit/second contract at €75 / month. BUT...... it doesn't.   Using a free speed test from      www.bandwidthplace.com    the fastest I have logged thus far is just 50 megabits/sec - that means it takes 2.8 minutes to download a 1 MB file.   In comparison, my UK supplied 2 way satellite at €140 per month flashes through the ether at 370 mbps (that's 22 seconds to download 1 MB).
So far I am not impressed and have asked the provider for an explanation but if you're not worried about top speeds, a connection is now available and that might be good news for someone.

PS The technician was too fast and left a really scruffy bit of cable hanging down my wall - he'll have to come back and re-do it if we keep the service.   Good luck.  

There is a new repeater that has just recently gone into service on the delta to cover the whole delta area, Camarles, L'Ampolla etc. so anyone strugling with dial up in these areas should now be able to get broadband - but as Colin says, don't expect it to be quite as fast as it is supposed to be!

Nigel

Hi there,

We are in el campo - a little north of Camarles and have just had Internet connected, form the shop that nigel mentioned above. Man in van came and tried to connect us to the repeater on the delta to no avail - but settled on the Mt. Caro option. I ordered the 1meg connection, and after severely pruning a carob - can get up to 870kb on a good day. We are quite a long way from Mt. Caro but it works well.

Had no joy with the Mobile 3G card here - could sporadically connect @ 56k only, so had to go the satellite route.

Chris