Ok. You've made it. You've found the place to live, taken the plunge and have either moved to Spain or bought a holiday home. It's likely that one of the first things that you will find yourself needing to arrange is the ability to communicate with your friends and relatives back home. Most likely, you'll be wanting a broadband internet connection and a phone line.
So, what are your options then? Actually, plenty. Nowadays Spain has a pretty decent telecommunications infrastructure and the bad old days where the time it took for a telephone line to be installed was measured in years rather than days is long gone.
ADSL broadband in Spain
Mostly, if you are going to be living here full time it makes sense to get a phone line and have a broadband ADSL connection installed. There are various providers, Telefonica which is the company which “owns” the phone lines, Jazztel, Ya.com and many others. Generally, you'll be paying around 13 euros per month for the phone line and around a further 30-40 euros per month for your broadband ADSL package.
My personal opinion is that if you are going to have an ADSL connection, its probably better to go with the company which is responsible for the phone lines. Telefonica are not cheap, and are renowned for their ineptness but I have tried connections with other ADSL providers and they have been less than stellar. Your mileage may vary.
Wireless broadband solutions
If you are moving to a rural area (campo) or some of the newer developments where Telefonica have not invested in infrastructure yet it becomes far less likely that ADSL is available. In this case a wireless solution is the answer.
There are various wireless options available. Most mobile operators have 3g services available whereby you can install a “dongle” into your computer. The advantage of using a mobile dongle is that you can access the Internet wherever there is 3g coverage – its portable. Coverage is pretty reasonable in urban and city centers but can be quite poor in more rural areas.
3g operators, for example Vodafone and Movistar, charge between 30-40 euros per month for a mobile “dongle” solution which connects to your computer and is widely available. This solution is not without its downsides, the biggest is that they provide you with a low monthly bandwidth limit, typically just one gigabyte which even with basic internet usage is easily reached. Usually these operators charge you for excess traffic which can prove to be expensive. Alternatively, once your traffic limit has been exceeded, some operators reduce your bandwidth down a crawl which at least avoids any nasty surprises at the end of the month.
Another option is fixed Wireless Internet Service Providers. These tend to be operated by smaller companies (my company Mercury Internet for example, employs a team of twelve). These companies provide Internet access by installing a small antenna at your house aligned towards their nearest repeater. One thing to note here is that unlike the 3g dongles, these companies generally do not provide a portable solution as the antenna needs to be fixed in place. However speeds tend to be much faster than a 3g solution and also you obtain far more generous monthly bandwidth allowances. These companies tend to provide more flexible billing arrangements too, which can be useful if you are only here for a few months of the year and only want to pay for what you use.
