Simyo Spain €5/month data (upto 500MB)

pete_l · 06-12-2009, 13:22

Although it might be a bit late to add to this topic, here goes anyway (I only found this forum the other day - after I had "discovered" simyo and their €5 offer).
On the basis of their website ad. and a small amount of unqualified chatter on some ex-pat forums about Simyo, I decided to try it out. So far I've been using a Vodafone PAYG 3G connection, which costs €60 and gives 1GB of transfer.
I opted for the Tarifa Movil Diaria (solo Tarifa diaria). I.e. I didn't buy the modem

First of all, you can only order this on the internet. You create an account at www.simyo.esTelefonía móvil sin ataduras, tarifas bajas, móviles libres e internet móvil and add your details. it will ask you for a passport number or NIE number (if you don't know what an NIE is - you haven't got one )
Once you have an account you can buy the SIM. There are two options "prepago" (prepay) or contract. At first I tried to apply for a contract SIM. However for this you need a spanish bank account number and a credit card number. For some reason I could not get it to accept an english CC number with a spanish bank account, nor with my english bank account.
Because of that, I ended up getting a prepay account. This only needs a credit card and my english one was good enough.
Also you need a spanish address for this to be delivered to.
Second, you need to be there to sign for the package when it arrives. I ordered mine on thursday and the postman drove over to my house on saturday morning to deliver it, get a signature and to write down my passport number
The cost was €4.95 which was the delivery cost and I got €5 free credit to the account
You need an unlocked phone to put the SIm in - even if you're only planning to use data (see later). The reason is that to register the SIM you have to make an initial call, or send a SMS from a phone using the SIM. Once that's done you ca use the data option.
Here's the killer. The data link is GPRS only. Not 3G: just modem speeds of 3 or 4 kByte/second. Simyo never tell you this and it's not at all obvious from the stuff they send you. One small giveaway is that you have to set the APN to gprs-service.com
I have had no luck whatsoever in using this SIM in either an unlocked ZTE-MF627 USB dongle (that I got for "3" data services in the UK), nor with my Vodafone dongle - either as it stood, or after I had upgraded / unocked it.
The ZTE just plain croaks and the E220 spits the message:
USIM/SIM card does not exist or is unavailable
On closer inspection, it turns out that the Simyo SIM only has 6 "pads" on it, compared to the 8 on my 3G data and voice-phone SIMs
Right now and for the foreseeable future the SIM is in my old Motorola V220 GPRS phone, tethered to my PC via USB and using Motorola's phone tools to manage the connection. My assumption is that if yo buy the Simyo modem (for €69 ) you get precisely that: a modem that connects to your computer, not a 3G dongle.

So, is it worth it? Well, for €5 a month I get 500MB of transfer (uploads + downloads totalled together) at low speed. The documentation, in spanish, seems to imply that a prepay lasts for 6 months, though I'll tell you more in 6 months time

. Compare this with Vodafone.es's €60 for 1GB which only lasts for 3 months - but can be many, many times faster. Provided the link doesn't drop to 2G - which happens frequently out here in the boonies. I can also pull the phone off my PC and use it to make voice calls and SMS's, so it's bit more versatile than just a 3G dongle and means you don't need another SIM for making calls.
My one concern is over this €0.99 per day maximum / €5 per month thing. Looking at my online account for yesterday it shows

Fecha Hora Duración kB Bloques Coste
05-Dec-2009 23:59:29 864 seg 4269 kB 18 0.44€
05-Dec-2009 22:51:30 4,080 seg 11488 kB 46 0€
05-Dec-2009 16:58:25 12,535 seg 49956 kB 196 1.15€

which is obviously more than €0.99

	(#28)
pete_l (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 2 Join Date: 06 Dec 2009 Country:	06-12-2009, 13:22 Although it might be a bit late to add to this topic, here goes anyway (I only found this forum the other day - after I had "discovered" simyo and their €5 offer). On the basis of their website ad. and a small amount of unqualified chatter on some ex-pat forums about Simyo, I decided to try it out. So far I've been using a Vodafone PAYG 3G connection, which costs €60 and gives 1GB of transfer. I opted for the Tarifa Movil Diaria (solo Tarifa diaria). I.e. I didn't buy the modem First of all, you can only order this on the internet. You create an account at www.simyo.esTelefonía móvil sin ataduras, tarifas bajas, móviles libres e internet móvil and add your details. it will ask you for a passport number or NIE number (if you don't know what an NIE is - you haven't got one ) Once you have an account you can buy the SIM. There are two options "prepago" (prepay) or contract. At first I tried to apply for a contract SIM. However for this you need a spanish bank account number and a credit card number. For some reason I could not get it to accept an english CC number with a spanish bank account, nor with my english bank account. Because of that, I ended up getting a prepay account. This only needs a credit card and my english one was good enough. Also you need a spanish address for this to be delivered to. Second, you need to be there to sign for the package when it arrives. I ordered mine on thursday and the postman drove over to my house on saturday morning to deliver it, get a signature and to write down my passport number The cost was €4.95 which was the delivery cost and I got €5 free credit to the account You need an unlocked phone to put the SIm in - even if you're only planning to use data (see later). The reason is that to register the SIM you have to make an initial call, or send a SMS from a phone using the SIM. Once that's done you ca use the data option. Here's the killer. The data link is GPRS only. Not 3G: just modem speeds of 3 or 4 kByte/second. Simyo never tell you this and it's not at all obvious from the stuff they send you. One small giveaway is that you have to set the APN to gprs-service.com I have had no luck whatsoever in using this SIM in either an unlocked ZTE-MF627 USB dongle (that I got for "3" data services in the UK), nor with my Vodafone dongle - either as it stood, or after I had upgraded / unocked it. The ZTE just plain croaks and the E220 spits the message: USIM/SIM card does not exist or is unavailable On closer inspection, it turns out that the Simyo SIM only has 6 "pads" on it, compared to the 8 on my 3G data and voice-phone SIMs Right now and for the foreseeable future the SIM is in my old Motorola V220 GPRS phone, tethered to my PC via USB and using Motorola's phone tools to manage the connection. My assumption is that if yo buy the Simyo modem (for €69 ) you get precisely that: a modem that connects to your computer, not a 3G dongle. So, is it worth it? Well, for €5 a month I get 500MB of transfer (uploads + downloads totalled together) at low speed. The documentation, in spanish, seems to imply that a prepay lasts for 6 months, though I'll tell you more in 6 months time . Compare this with Vodafone.es's €60 for 1GB which only lasts for 3 months - but can be many, many times faster. Provided the link doesn't drop to 2G - which happens frequently out here in the boonies. I can also pull the phone off my PC and use it to make voice calls and SMS's, so it's bit more versatile than just a 3G dongle and means you don't need another SIM for making calls. My one concern is over this €0.99 per day maximum / €5 per month thing. Looking at my online account for yesterday it shows Fecha Hora Duración kB Bloques Coste 05-Dec-2009 23:59:29 864 seg 4269 kB 18 0.44€ 05-Dec-2009 22:51:30 4,080 seg 11488 kB 46 0€ 05-Dec-2009 16:58:25 12,535 seg 49956 kB 196 1.15€ which is obviously more than €0.99