Prepaid DATA in Spain

[petkow]

Are you on an o2 contract back in the UK? If you are, you can still use your inclusive texts in Spain (back to the UK) on a 4:1 ratio.

[finisterre]

Originally Posted by petkow

Are you on an o2 contract back in the UK? If you are, you can still use your inclusive texts in Spain (back to the UK) on a 4:1 ratio.

I'm on T-Mobile. But thanks anyway.

[petkow]

Sorry... that was a stab in the dark! If you have a cheap local Spanish data plan, you could also consider using something like fishtext for cheap SMS back to the UK. (2p/SMS).

I take you've had a read through these pages already with regards to how to pick up a local Spanish SIM on an MVNO that gives you decent data rates? I think Masmovil is fairly decent these days. It's not too easy to find their SIM's in shops though. If you know what your address will be, you could also consider getting a Simyo SIM card delivered to you when you will be there. On Spanish prepaid SIM's, the cheapest SMS rates are with Yoigo (who charge you either 8 or 10c). Simyo, is not bad at 15c. There are some networks (e.g. Vodafone) that charge you as much as 69c!!

[petkow]

Hi Drama Queen. Thanks for the feedback. Carrefour is indeed quite a useful one as there are so many of their shops and associates around which means that picking up a SIM is a lot easier than many of the other MVNO's. I am glad it worked out so well for you. I also have had no significant problems lately with coverage on Orange. They are improving all the time. Also interesting to know that Carrefour have no problems with VoIP usage. I think this is the same on most of the other MVNO's that use Orange (e.g. I know on my Simyo I have no problems). Movistar is the other network that also has no VoIP restrictions.

I used to have a Carrefour SIM but a long time ago. Was the Carrefour SIM that you got on the data tariff a normal Voice SIM as well? (i.e. could you make and receive calls?) The only downside that I can see with Carrefour is the 3 euro minimum monthly spend requirement. In practice, this would mean that visitors who only visit Spain once or twice a year cannot feasibly maintain their cards but would have to pick up a new SIM every time.

[drama queen]

Originally Posted by petkow

Hi Drama Queen. Thanks for the feedback. Carrefour is indeed quite a useful one as there are so many of their shops and associates around which means that picking up a SIM is a lot easier than many of the other MVNO's. I am glad it worked out so well for you. I also have had no significant problems lately with coverage on Orange. They are improving all the time. Also interesting to know that Carrefour have no problems with VoIP usage. I think this is the same on most of the other MVNO's that use Orange (e.g. I know on my Simyo I have no problems). Movistar is the other network that also has no VoIP restrictions.

I used to have a Carrefour SIM but a long time ago. Was the Carrefour SIM that you got on the data tariff a normal Voice SIM as well? (i.e. could you make and receive calls?) The only downside that I can see with Carrefour is the 3 euro minimum monthly spend requirement. In practice, this would mean that visitors who only visit Spain once or twice a year cannot feasibly maintain their cards but would have to pick up a new SIM every
time.

The Carrefour SIM is intended for use in their Dongle, and I think it is meant to be data only. They also sell it with a dongle, and in this case the dongle software probably automatically installs the correct APN.

I have not tried making a voice call - I am afraid it might switch me to a voice tariff or burn my credit on an expensive per minute tariff. I tried an incoming call but it didnt work.

It doesn't bother me as VOIP works and I also have my home SIM.

The great thing about this SIM is €1 for 100MB per day-that gives me all the web, email & VOIP I need plus GPS switched on all the tome streaming Google maps, and some Radio streaming. So far I am hitting around 40MB per day-well within quota.

[inquisitor]

I've just realized, that másmovil have discontinued their monthly flatrate for € 20. Now they only offer data packs of 1 GB (€ 14.90/month) and 300 MB (€ 5/month) with exceeding traffic being charged with € 0.03/MB for both tariffs (see: Total movilidad y ahorro con la tarifa modem USB internet movil).
Their customer care is also disastrous. Having sent all registration information including my scanned password 3 days ago to datos@masmovil.es, my SIM has still not been activated yet and after calling customer care yesterday and today I was promised callbacks from an English speaking operator twice, which I haven't received yet either.
It took me days to find a másmovil SIM during my last vacation at Gran Canaria and now before I got to use it prices have increased dramatically and I can't even activate the SIM card. Perhaps prices will come down again after the holiday season.

[drama queen]

The stores are in most cities and major towns in mainland Spain. There is a map on their website.

Hipermercados Carrefour

It looks like there might not be a store on Menorca - I think the nearest one might be on Mallorca?

The APN settings were not in the SIM pack. Normally these should be stored on the SIM. Instead the SIM had APN settings for Orange - the network that Carrefour is hosted on. These didn't seem to work - so I simply went into the APN menu on my phone and set up an additional APN for Carrefour. Just add an APN with the following settings - NAME=Carrefour, APN=carrefourinternet.

The SIM is probably designed for use in Carrefour dongles - and these probably automatically set up the APN. I was using the SIM in my phone, so I had to set up the APN manually.

I didn't pay too much attention to the speeds - in general they were good in the cities and towns, and sometimes slower in very rural areas. I was mainly web-browsing, emailing, streaming Google maps and listening to streamed radio sometimes - all of these were fine in all 5 places where I was staying. I also used VOIP and it was mostly ok - sometimes a little choppy - but this is normal when you do VOIP over 3G. Carrefour use Orange's network - so the coverage and speeds are probably the same as Orange.

100MBytes per day is the cap on downloading. I never went above 40MBytes any day - so 100MBytes was fine for me. Every day that you use the Internet, €1 will be deducted from your credit. The minimum top-up seems to be €5, although they asked me to put in €10 when I bought the SIM. Hence the cost works out at €1 per day, but the minimum that you can initially buy is 10 days.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[flyfisher]

Originally Posted by drama queen

The stores are in most cities and major towns in mainland Spain. There is a map on their website.

Hipermercados Carrefour

It looks like there might not be a store on Menorca - I think the nearest one might be on Mallorca?

The APN settings were not in the SIM pack. Normally these should be stored on the SIM. Instead the SIM had APN settings for Orange - the network that Carrefour is hosted on. These didn't seem to work - so I simply went into the APN menu on my phone and set up an additional APN for Carrefour. Just add an APN with the following settings - NAME=Carrefour, APN=carrefourinternet.

The SIM is probably designed for use in Carrefour dongles - and these probably automatically set up the APN. I was using the SIM in my phone, so I had to set up the APN manually.

I didn't pay too much attention to the speeds - in general they were good in the cities and towns, and sometimes slower in very rural areas. I was mainly web-browsing, emailing, streaming Google maps and listening to streamed radio sometimes - all of these were fine in all 5 places where I was staying. I also used VOIP and it was mostly ok - sometimes a little choppy - but this is normal when you do VOIP over 3G. Carrefour use Orange's network - so the coverage and speeds are probably the same as Orange.

100MBytes per day is the cap on downloading. I never went above 40MBytes any day - so 100MBytes was fine for me. Every day that you use the Internet, €1 will be deducted from your credit. The minimum top-up seems to be €5, although they asked me to put in €10 when I bought the SIM. Hence the cost works out at €1 per day, but the minimum that you can initially buy is 10 days.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Many thanks. It looks as though I will have to ask around to see if i know any friends who are off to mainland Spain. I think I have one contact who may be able to help. 4 last questions I hope and thanks so far!!

1) How long does the credit last for?
2)Is there a monthly 'maintenance charge?
3)How long does an unused SIM stay active for??
4)How can you 'top up' - hopefully not just via the shops.

Many thanks

[drama queen]

Originally Posted by flyfisher

Many thanks. It looks as though I will have to ask around to see if i know any friends who are off to mainland Spain. I think I have one contact who may be able to help. 4 last questions I hope and thanks so far!!

1) How long does the credit last for?
2)Is there a monthly 'maintenance charge?
3)How long does an unused SIM stay active for??
4)How can you 'top up' - hopefully not just via the shops.

Many thanks

I don't know how long the credit lasts for. The daily tariff plan is not tied to a month (they have another monthly tariff) - so I have no reason to believe that credit will expire at the end of a month. It is essentially a day-pass tariff, and if you don't use the Internet on any particular day it doesn't debit your credit. However, there may be some period of inactivity after which the SIM gets disabled? In most countries this is 6 months to a year. If you have some Spanish, you might be able to find the details in the user manual...

http://www.carrefour.es/telecom/docu...rnet_movil.pdf

They forced me to do a €10 top-up immediately when I bought the SIM - so I suspect that the SIM was active from this time. It didn't bother me, because I needed 10 days of use. However, the credit shouldn't start decrementing until you first access the Internet. Perhaps you could persuade them that you just wanted the SIM and that you would top up at a later stage?

You can top up at any checkout in Carrefour - but they also appear to have an Internet top-up - and perhaps a phone help-line also. I didn't use either of these so I can't be sure how well they work.

Recargas > Carrefour Móvil > Carrefour Telecom

[petkow]

Originally Posted by drama queen

I don't know how long the credit lasts for. The daily tariff plan is not tied to a month (they have another monthly tariff) - so I have no reason to believe that credit will expire at the end of a month. It is essentially a day-pass tariff, and if you don't use the Internet on any particular day it doesn't debit your credit. However, there may be some period of inactivity after which the SIM gets disabled? In most countries this is 6 months to a year.

The most important thing that has been missed in this information is that the SIM has a minimum spend requirement of 3 Euros per month! If you do not meet this, they will debit it from your balance. Therefore if you plan on buying this SIM to use over two holidays, and leave credit on the SIM when you leave, you may find that it is down to zero by the time you are back.

If you can read and understand Spanish, a good resource for prepaid SIM's in Spain is gsmspain.com. For carrefour movil, this page has a lot of information: Foro Carrefour móvil