Exploring spanish 'prepaygo' mobile internet

[a-mac]

This is information I've posted elsewhere but the response was very positive so I'm posting it again as well.

I have recently been to Spain taking my T-Mobile dongle and, surprise, surpise, it turned out very expensive to use despite their £1.50 per MB price being lower than most. So I researched the local equivalent and the information below may be helpful, although it specifically relates to the Moriara area (Costa Blanca, north of Benidorm and Calpe).

For PAYG internet, what I discovered was the following. The pay as you go option is called PREPAYGO in Spain.

Movistar has best coverage in Spain and is priced at 3 euros per day of use for unlimited MBs but I don't have any more info as I didn't find anywhere selling the Movistar dongles or SIMS. If anyone can give a detailed breakdown of the Movistar prepaygo costs, I'm sure forum members would find it useful information to add to what I have written here.

We went into a huge nationwide electronics superstore in Elche (forget the name of it) but it was very close to a Carrefour supermarket (maybe next door). Although they had brochures for the internet suppliers, they didn't sell any prepaygo dongles for any provider.

BUT, for anyone living in Spain, in this huge electronics store mentioned above, and at the Movistar desk (where the girl spoke good English), they did do a great Movistar deal which wasn't PAYG but was a 30 day contract which can be cancelled at any time after 30 days. You buy the dongle, and then signed up for the SIM/data deal. I seem to recall it was a very good price at about 1 euro per day of usage. Anyway it wasn't any use to us as it involved paperwork delays and phone calls and bank info, etc. For a short stay such as ours, it wasn't worth it.

The cheapest prepaygo providers apparently, are SIMYO and YOIGO, but their signals only cover highly populated areas, and they only supply to an applicant with a Spanish address and will only deliver to the person buying the SIM, who must sign for it.

I looked at Orange and Vodaphone by Googling them and finding their shop addresses in my area.

Although the Orange coverage map online looked good for the area I was going to (Moriara) the guy in the Orange shop in the town said that in the same way that some phones have better reception than others, the Orange PAYG dongle itself didn't have a good internal antenna for reception so he advised going with another provider! Great sales technique! Probably in other areas Orange works fine but for parts of Moraira, apparently not.

INFO FROM RETAILER SUPPLYING VODAPHONE DONGLES IN MORIARA, JUNE 2009. Don't remember its name but the shop was near the harbour area. It was also a currency exchange place. It had Telefonica written on its green hoarding, was to the left of a camera shop and to the right of a bar with WiFi connections for their customers. There was a blond Polish woman working in the retailers and she spoke fluent English.

You buy a Vodaphone dongle and SIM for 90 euros. Or you supply your own unlocked dongle and just buy a Vodaphone SIM for 30 euros.

Top-up data packages are available at price Options A or B

COST OPTION A:-
Basic - 19 euros for 150 MB data total, valid for 3 months
Advanced - 29 euros for 400 MB data total, valid for 3 months
Premium - 59 euros for 1 GB data total, valid for 3 months

COST OPTION B:-
ONE WEEK USAGE - 29 euros for UNLIMITED DATA AND USAGE
TWO WEEKS USAGE - 39 euros for UNLIMITED DATA AND USAGE
ONE MONTH USAGE - 59 euros for UNLIMITED DATA AND USAGE

THEREAFTER: If there is no top-up bought after either Option A or Option B has expired (and I forget how many days grace you get after expiry) then the SIM is redundant and so next visit, the SIM must be replaced with a new one and then the top ups bought as well.

SO ...MINIMUM SPEND PER TRIP ON OPTION A, INCLUDING A NEW SIM, IS 49 euros, 59 euros OR 89 euros
MINIMUM SPEND PER TRIP ON OPTION B IS 59 euros, 69 euros OR 89 euros

In the event, I stuck with my T-Mobile for this last trip but have now bought an unlocked USB dongle in the UK. Next year, if I am in the same part of Spain, I will just buy the SIM and UNLIMITED MB package as shown in Option B above.

Incidentally if you (or someone you know) lives in the UK, at the moment (July 2009) you can get a free PAYG dongle from Welcome to 3 Dongle 4 Free and then unlock it (for free) with software from RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting

Then just buy a SIM and MB package in your part of Spain and pop it in - Bob's your uncle!

Hopefully someone going to Spain will find this helpful. Obviously as it's info dated July 2009, if you're reading this in 2010 or later, deals may well have changed if their marketing is anything like as aggressive it is in the UK.