Spain, Prepaid and VOIP

[mbrokerny]

Which is the best prepaid service to buy for a 1 week trip to Spain that will allow me to use VOIP over 3G using my iphone? Ive been reading a lot but cannot find this specific info.

[inquisitor]

simyo.es and MÁSmovil probably have the most attractive data tariffs, however they are practically only available online. If you want to buy a SIM offline, Vodafone is not bad. Their "Bonos por Tiempo Semenal" pack giving unlimited traffic for 7 days for € 19 (throttled to 64 KBit/s after exceeding 1GB) is not bad and VoIP definitely works (tried Skype and SIP), allthough their advertising claims the opposite.

[mbrokerny]

Do simyo.es and MÁSmovil definitely allow voip? I thought i saw somewhere that simyo does not... Can i order them online to the US or only a Spanish address?

edit,since i only need for one week, does simyo have a weekly or daily plan or only the monthy(tarifa plana 1gb) and (tarifa diaria movil) per/mb plan?

what is the MÁSmovil plan called-link?, i cannot locate/translate on their site?

[petkow]

Originally Posted by mbrokerny

Do simyo.es and MÁSmovil definitely allow voip? I thought i saw somewhere that simyo does not...

Simyo does though not officially. For me it gets classed as ordinary data, and it works well. I have not used MASmovil, but I hear VoIP works with them too.

Can i order them online to the US or only a Spanish address?

Only to a spanish address.

edit,since i only need for one week, does simyo have a weekly or daily plan or only the monthy(tarifa plana 1gb) and (tarifa diaria movil) per/mb plan?

No, only the 1 month deal. I don't actually think it is great value any more. A better deal is still available if you can get a hold of an old style tariff which costs 5 Euros for 500MB. Simyo themselves are not selling them anymore, but perhaps there are sellers on ebay? I am not sure though, as people who have these older SIM's are now holding on to them tight! People who have them will remain on the old tariff.

what is the MÁSmovil plan called-link?, i cannot locate/translate on their site?

Masmovil Homepage
They are one of the few Spanish operators that have English pages throughout their site too. Their internet offering (called Tarifa Plana) has been discussed elsewhere on this forum too, so it might help to search for that. Here is the page though:
Masmovil: Internet

[Capvermell]

I have an English friend of mine (I am also from the UK) who has just moved out to Spain indefinitely (may be permanently) and is living in a place with no phone line. Of course being a non techie they just went for the heavily marketed option of a Movistar Pay As You Go SIM card for just phone calls. They also weren't aware of services like www.18185.co.uk for their friends in England to call the Spanish mobile more cheaply than the extortionate BT Spanish mobile rates.

They clearly need to have both a mobile data connection and use SIP for phone calls so that English friends can call them using a UK SIP phone number (ie with Sipgate). I am also recommending that they get a Lebara Movil SIM to make calls to UK landlines when they are out and about or in case their mobile data connection fails when they are at home.

However from the discussion above there seems to be no guarantee that SIP or other Voip use will continue working on simyo (which looks the best option for now if you need to use more than 1GB per month which is surely likely during the upcoming winter months) so all I can do is recommend they go for Simyo and then review the position if they ever block Voip use. Ultimately they may move to an apartment that has a landline and have an ADSL connection but this may not be for several months. Where they are living now is rent free but it is likely to be put up for sale but the sale could easily take a year or more to go through and the costs of putting in a phone line on such an unknown short term basis are probably not worthwhile.

Is the only option to go for Simyo and hope they don't block Voip use?

Speaking of simyo I also don't understand their terms and conditions for keeping the SIM working as I bought two of their SIM cards last summer (2009) in August and their rules seem to say that you need to make a call every 6 months to avoid deactivation but still have four months after that to add credit to reactivate the phone if you don't. But when I got to Spain I was over the 6 months but not the 10 months but the number that had not been used for 6 months had disappeared from my online account and there was therefore no way to add credit. Oddly the SIM was not shown as decativated when I turned the phone on and could still scan for networks but then then Orange/Simyo would not let the SIM log on to it. This is a shame since it qualifies for the 500MB of data for 5 Euros per month tariff. Has anyone else experienced Simyo deleting SIM cards from online accounts that should still be able to be kept active under their stated rules for SIM card use and what further thoughts (if any) do people have about Voip use on the various Spanish mobile data networks.

[wco81]

Originally Posted by petkow

Masmovil Homepage
They are one of the few Spanish operators that have English pages throughout their site too. Their internet offering (called Tarifa Plana) has been discussed elsewhere on this forum too, so it might help to search for that. Here is the page though:
Masmovil: Internet

Is the Masmovil another operator which does not sell their SIM at retail?

Can you top up on the same SIM and go for another 1 GB for 15 Euro if you use up 1 GB early?

Otherwise it looks like they charge .0354 Euro per MB after the first GB.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by wco81

Is the Masmovil another operator which does not sell their SIM at retail?

Can you top up on the same SIM and go for another 1 GB for 15 Euro if you use up 1 GB early?

Otherwise it looks like they charge .0354 Euro per MB after the first GB.

There's an ebay seller which says it's an authorized reseller who'll sell a masmovil sim for about $45 delivered to the US, with a 15 € credit. They say they'll register and configure the sim and require a passport number.

Another ebay seller resells vodafone sims for about $28 delivered, with a 10 € credit. This one doesn't ask for a passport number. The masmovil seller says such behavior could be illegal.

Vodafone has a 0.5 € / day rate with 20mb high speed, then unlimited low speed. Is there any way to get another 20mb for another 0.5 € if I exceed the first 20mb? I'll only be in Spain for about a week and don't usually use that much data, but I'd like to be able to get a bit more high speed data in the unlikely event I need it. http://360.vodafone.es/TarifaPlana/tarjeta/diaria/ The blackberry plan is essentially the same price, with no limit, but I don't have a blackberry. http://360.vodafone.es/TarifaPlana/t...kberrytarjeta/

Seems easier than buying in Spain. I'm trying to decide if I want one of these, or if I should buy a Carrefour data only sim in Spain.

[kuba.g]

I bought a MÁS Movil card in a retailer in Madrid (a 10 minute walk from the Atocha station) without any problems. He did need to see my passport (Spanish law requires this)

[foosion]

Originally Posted by kuba.g

I bought a MÁS Movil card in a retailer in Madrid (a 10 minute walk from the Atocha station) without any problems. He did need to see my passport (Spanish law requires this)

Which retailer? How much did it cost?

[wco81]

What was the data plan like?

Has anyone used a Yoigo SIM, supposedly available at Phonehouse stores?


Spain - Yoigo - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access