Data in Portugal?
 

I am going to be in Portugal on Monday for about a week.
I have been searching here, but I could not find any precise information on prepaid options for data access in Portugal.

I have browsed through the operators sites and I may have found something from Vodafone (to be better investigated on site).
It is quite strange that Vodafone seems to be the best option, since I never found that Vodafone-related national operators have good data plans (starting from Italy... It is a pity, since I am using Vodafone post-paid in Italy for voice calls and I started to use mobile data with Vodafone, but then I had to leave them since all other operators have far better deals).
It would be the first (welcome) time since a long time!

Anyway, I have of course already all that is needed. Therefore I am not very much interested to get options where they want to sell you the USB-key bundled or similar with the data option (how many USB keys should we have in the mind of the operators? :rolleyes:).

High speed is of course preferable, but any type of affordable connection (even plain vanilla GPRS) would be fine!

I thank you for any help in advance!

Sleepy

Since nobody answered, I do it myself after my own experience! :p

It seems to me that Portugal for prepaid data is good enough.

As usually, getting reliable information in the shops is quite difficult, since it always seems to me that I know and can do more than the people in the shop know or dare to know... :rolleyes:

I inquired in a Optimus shop, they had a prepaid plan at reasonable prices (22 Euros/1 GB traffic), but the lady insisted that it would not work without or I would need to buy the usual USB dongle (I am using my mobile phone also to connect my PDA and my PC, therefore this is for me a no no, when possible).

Waiting for a better answer, I went into a TMN shop (actually it was a multibrand shop, but they offered me a TMN plan as the best).
I got a data only SIM card for 15 Euro, with 10 Euro credit, which would allow 400 MB 3G traffic + (important!) 400 MB wifi traffic under ptwifi coverage (usual registration procedure required to get the password to use wifi). My hotel (and also other places and malls around town) had ptwifi, therefore this was very good, doubling the potential traffic one can use.
Buying the 25 Euro card would entitle to 1 GB 3G + unlimited wifi, but it seems you never find those as a start, and you cannot top-up to 25 Euro, you must pay 25 and loose the initial 10.
Take this into account and make your plans accordingly.

SIM cannot be topped up by Internet unless you have Portugal paying cards, at least so it seems to me.

After all this, I was online in 5 minutes, walking away back to the hotel. Speed is good and sometimes 3G was even speedier than wifi! Everything in the usual ranges, anyway. Do not expect 7 Mb/s speeds!

For 3G, traffic is decreased at 1 MB chunks, therefore be careful if you check your mail frequently in different sessions!
Also GoogleMaps on the mobile phone seems to me particularly "dangerous" under this respect. Does it open & closes sessions continuously?

All in all a reasonably good experience.

Sleepy

Have you seen here?--->PrePaidGSM: Portugal :p

What do you think? :p :p

Can you see anything I have written clearly shown in your link or here:
PrePaidGSM: TMN (Portugal)
?

Are you trying to politely thanking me for sharing information? :D
Do you have any idea of what a forum is meant to be for? :confused:

Thank you for your useful contribution.

Cheers,
Stefano

Thanks for sharing the TMN experience. Read how well Optimus does with 3G prepaid internet in Portugal.

Thank you for doing the same with Optimus! :D

I only point out again that TMN also gives traffic (even unlimited, depending what option you buy) on their wifi hotspots. Of course this can be of no use and depends on what you intend to do and where you are moving about (and reading your interesting website, it seems you are definitely not going to be interested in such an option! :wink:) .

But if you are staying at a hotel covered by a ptwifi hotspot you can connect to it at lower rates (i.e. included in the cost of the mobile Internet through the cell phone) and save data traffic through mobile network for when you are out in the city or in the wild.

I had no "pushing" in buying also a USB dongle with TMN, only the people at the shop, as usual, do not know that you can well connect through a cell phone and only advised me about the (non-existent) risks of doing so. So, no real pushing for me, only a bit of not well digested know-how!
The same happened for me (but a bit harder) right at the Optimus shop!
So, it really matters about who you get in contact with.

Cheers and good 2010! :D: D: bye:

Sleepy