Recommendations for Spain?

[mrbarlow]

Hi all.

Recently visited the site after a gap of a few months and noticed that Spain seems to have yet more MVNOs.

I am planning to go to Spain in July (Barcelona, Sevilla & Madrid) for just over 2 weeks and had originally planned to get a Yoigo SIM but I'm aware of the Simyo brand from back last year when I looked into options for Belgium.

Data useage would be nice (although possibly not life or death) so I'm wondering whether I should stick with the original plan of going Yoigo or whether I should opt for a Simyo (or perhaps other?)

[Motel75]

I've looked through the provider list for Spain, and quite frankly, it doesn't look too promising. I'm going there next month, for the first time in many years, and would like to pick up two SIMs (so I can talk to my wife) that will have relatively cheap calls to the USA and the rest of Europe (Poland, Germany, UK, Italy), as well as being easy to keep alive, in case I start coming to Spain more often; cheap-ish data would be good, too. I'd also like to not have to spend very much for the SIM itself.

However, it looks rather bleak -- for a country with lots of holiday visitors, there's no offer that seems like a good one for annual visitors, unlike, say, O2 has in the Czech Republic. In fact, roaming on my German/Polish/British/Italian phones would be cheaper in some circumstances than a native SIM. Yoigo seems to be the best all-rounder, but perhaps there's an MVNO or something that isn't listed yet. Any suggestions?

[KPO'M]

I'll be in Spain next month. I'm planning to go the Yoigo route, but will ask about alternatives at the Phone Warehouse. I'd like to maintain some level of data (though I'll also keep my T-Mobile USA SIM with its worldwide BB plan as a backup). If I find anything different, I'll post here.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by Motel75

However, it looks rather bleak -- for a country with lots of holiday visitors, there's no offer that seems like a good one for annual visitors, unlike, say, O2 has in the Czech Republic. In fact, roaming on my German/Polish/British/Italian phones would be cheaper in some circumstances than a native SIM. Yoigo seems to be the best all-rounder, but perhaps there's an MVNO or something that isn't listed yet. Any suggestions?

Tell me about it!! Deals are quite poor in Spain. Yoigo on Tarjeta 2 (with no €6 min spend) is the best for casual visitors by far! Data is still cheap and capped on this, but peak calls (well from 04:00 to 16:00) are expensive. International rates at 30c/min are not too bad, though for longer calls you may consider a different card that gives you cheap calls at the time you want to a Madrid landline number and using a Finarea service. I now have a Spanish Vodafone contract which actually gives me upto 1000 mins for free to a selected number which works out well for me.

You're right though... roaming rates on many foreign Sims often work out cheaper than prepaid rates on many Spanish cards. e.g. When roaming on my UK o2 card I pay 31c/min to call any European landline or mobile which is even better than Yoigos peak rate to Spain on Tarjeta 2.

I will do a bit more research on other products. Anyone tried http://www.happymovil.es yet? Around 5c/min or 6c/min to landlines in USA and Europe. Not too bad!

[Motel75]

I should follow up on my Spain trip. I bought a Lebara SIM for 5 euros (with 5 euro credit) from an open-air stand at the Heron City shopping center in Barcelona; it shouldn't be too hard to find elsewhere. It had good international rates between 20:00 and midnight -- other times they were more, although not too bad (something like 7 cents/min at the cheap rate to the USA and 20 cents otherwise). I don't know if data is supported, it didn't say. Lebara can be kept alive with a billable item (ie, an SMS) every 90 days, otherwise it starts charging a "maintenance fee" each month until the credit is gone.

As far as The Phone House goes, it's everywhere in Spain, so getting their Happy Movil international SIM should be no problem. Both Lebara and Happy have connection charges per call.

OTOH, finding free/cheap Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in Spain was a real pain.

[petkow]

I think there are connection charges on all Spanish prepaids. The biggest problem with Lebara and Happy are their high international SMS rates (45c Lebara and 55c for Happy). Yoigo is a bit better at this as they charge the same as national SMS (10c + IVA) though in my experience they do not get through to all destinations!

Originally Posted by Motel75

OTOH, finding free/cheap Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in Spain was a real pain.

Yes... I think this is thanks to the Telefonica almost-monopoly and the fact that until fairly recently they were the only ones supplying thousands of "free" routers with ADSL contracts. All of these are locked by default. From my house I can pick up no less than 13 signals (all starting WLAN_) and all locked.

However.. I have to say I have had fairly good experiences of picking up FON spots in Spain.

[kctopitz]

Not that anyone here would be considering it given the other recommendations, but I advise against using Vodafone simply on the basis that there is no way to check your balance without being charged for it. Checking it from your phone costs something like 13 cents, and even if you register your number on the Vodafone website you can't see what your balance is. It's idiotic. Is this common amongst other Spanish providers as well?

[petkow]

I agree. That really wound me up too. My only other experience is with Yoigo and Carrefour. Carrefour give you a certain number of free checks per month (I think 4) and then they also charge you after that. How ridiculous! Yoigo is free.

[Bossman]

About 3 years ago when I visited Spain briefly and used Amena (or something like that), they charged to check your balance too.

[ronwi]

Lebara has since gone down in price. It now appears to be 6 cents per minute to the US at any time with a 19 cents per call connection charge. International SMS is now 19 cents. All prices include tax.

See www.lebara.es for details.

Originally Posted by Motel75

I should follow up on my Spain trip. I bought a Lebara SIM for 5 euros (with 5 euro credit) from an open-air stand at the Heron City shopping center in Barcelona; it shouldn't be too hard to find elsewhere. It had good international rates between 20:00 and midnight -- other times they were more, although not too bad (something like 7 cents/min at the cheap rate to the USA and 20 cents otherwise). I don't know if data is supported, it didn't say. Lebara can be kept alive with a billable item (ie, an SMS) every 90 days, otherwise it starts charging a "maintenance fee" each month until the credit is gone.

As far as The Phone House goes, it's everywhere in Spain, so getting their Happy Movil international SIM should be no problem. Both Lebara and Happy have connection charges per call.

OTOH, finding free/cheap Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in Spain was a real pain.