Recommendations for Spain?

[BBB]

>OTOH, finding free/cheap Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in Spain was a real pain.

Most of the bigger McDonalds had wifi (Barcelona area) - same in Portugal - but there you had to get a username/password which was on a leaflet in the store

[andy]

A few weeks ago, I saw something about another Spanish mvno with cheap int'l calls, but was busy and forgot to look again, and now I couldn't remember the name ...

I found 5 new ones, not all launched yet, Viva, XL, fonyou, Masmovil, Hitsmobile, the last two with cheap int'l calls. There are connection fees of course; the off-peak rates to foreign mobiles might be worthwhile

http://www.masmovil.es/MasVidaMovilSelfcare/es/201.html

http://www.hitsmobile.es/web/en/tarifas/internacionales

[inquisitor]

Do you mean http://www.simyo.es/ ?

For Germans they have a very decent option offering calls and SMS from Spain to Germany, from Germany to Spain and within both countries for just 9 ct (+ 15 ct call setup fee) to all networks: http://www.simyo.es/alemania/

[fedeprovenza]

Simyo and Yoigo are the best in Spain

[markus]

Hello.. all the information here has been useful to make me convinced I want Yoigo. But buying Yoigo SIM card has proved to be a real ball breaker.

My friend is spending few weeks in Alicante area, and I instructed him to visit The Phone House (there are few in Alicante). Staff doesn't really speak English there, and even if they do, they claim:

- Yoigo Prepaid Sim cards are not available
- They do not support data
- You only get data working with non-Nokia phone
- You need NIE etc number (=be resident) to buy one

I really hope it's just crap, either due pure stupidity or vicious plan to get people buying more expensive products.

One problem that confuses me a bit, is price of the starter kit. Posts here suggest it costs either 20 or 15 euros. But my friend was asked 10 (and they said it doesn't support data) and he didn't have courage to buy it. I hope they have just reduced the price without changing the product itself..

As I understand, Yoigo Prepaid supports data up to 384kbit/s so maybe they were trying to explain that contract SIM with monthly subscription would give MORE speed (up to 2mbit/s). I really hope it's about this.

So could somebody confirm that Yoigo prepaids are still available and those 10 euro starter kits are fully fuctional (like described here, 1,2e+vat for one day usage etc)?

My friend is whining me I don't take this matter seriously enough (because I just asked him to go to The Phone House and buy Yoigo - which in most countries would be ENOUGH).

He also tried to order Yoigo online (also Simyo) but without luck. He of course doesn't have NIE, local bank account or debit/card. Has anybody succeeded in ordering one online with foreign Visa / bank account?

I don't understand Spanish, so websites are not very helpful

[real_goose]

Originally Posted by markus

So could somebody confirm that Yoigo prepaids are still available and those 10 euro starter kits are fully fuctional (like described here, 1,2e+vat for one day usage etc)?

I bought a Yoigo prepaid SIM at Phone House in Madrid about 10 days ago when I discovered that my Greek prepaid would not roam in Spain. The biggest issue was waiting for my turn. When I told the clerk I was in a hotel, he said 'no problem' and entered something into the forms I had to sign. The forms were printed in English, I assume because I do not speak Spanish.

The SIM was €10 with a full €10 of credit. After each call or Internet connection, there was a message with the cost and my remaining balance. The deduction for a full day's Internet use was €1.2 and there seemed to be no VAT added.

Since every hotel I visited had free WiFi, I only used the Internet access twice. First to set it up and test and then this morning at the airport. Local calls and calls to Greece were reasonably priced.

[jaaho]

http://www.xatakamovil.com/2008/10/0...nos-operadores

[petkow]

Great comparison table! Sorry... just spotted it now!

Surprising that they all have such high 'call establishement' fees. I am on Yoigo, and though it is 0c/min between Yoigo users... for the 10-15 calls per day I make... the minimum call setup fee still tots up! It's annoying too when the called partY is engaged, you get an answering machine and pay the 12c!

Also there is no IVA/VAT shown on these rates above. The interesting thing with Yoigo is that when you buy a card for 10EUR, you get 10EUR of credit (i.e. it appears no IVA charged). When you do subsequent topups for 10EUR, you only get 8.40 or something in credit as they swipe off the tax. So it is not really 1.20 per day for the internet!

[AndreA]

Hi, i just returned from MWC 09... I bought 2 Yoigo simcards (note: 2 different prefixes! 622 and 633 for "Yoigo 8" tariff plan) and I used the web service.

The quality is still poor: the price is ok, but coverage and service is almost crappy... I had coverage troubles in Gerona, then in Barcellona too When I had coverage, I had bad service too... a lot of website really slow and a "false" HSDPA service. Next time I'll use them only for international SMS...

[faquick]

I can confirm what Andrea said. Most problems were when we tried to access google-related sites, and having every email domain using gmail / google apps it was almost impossible to connect to our mailboxes with Yoigo

but anyway the girl @ The Phone House inside a shopping mall near Girona was nice enough to activate our SIM cards without any issues, and not asking anything but the ID cards