unlimited wireless broadband

Hi all,

The next stage of our exciting journey of having a house built in spain leads us to Internet connectivity.

It seems that Telefonica cannot give us a land line (even though we are on the edge of town).

As such we need to have another way of getting internet connectivity. The problem is the amount we want. we use a lot as we speak daily on Skype as well as needing always on access if I work from home while in Murica.

Looking at the various options, it appears that there are options such as radio telephone which I undersd is old technology and can't give me internet only phone lines. The 3G seems a bit hit and miss and so sat Broadband seems an option, although I want to ensure that I can have unlimited internet  to cope with our demand and is that going to be horrifically expensive?

Any thoughts any of you may have from experiience would be very gratefully received.

Regards, Carl

Check out quantis.es or tooway.es

Both are capped services but there is a degree of freedom of choice in the matter.

Expensive? Probably but it depends entirely on your usage.

For the record I have no connection with either company.

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Edited for typo.

Hi Foxbat, thanks for the reply. The problem though is that we use a lot of internet.

In January olone so far I've used 32GB in the UK and much of that is talking to Skype in spain so I'm assuming the other end is much the same. We're currently on an umlimited package where we are, however once we move that's when the problem starts.

Carl

Just a thought but is the video aspect essential? Skype can still be used for basic voip calls without a web cam, and you could email a still photo instead :) It's video calling that is presumably pushing your usage through the roof. Also, what about messaging and emailing more? that would certainly cut down the weight of the traffic.

7 years ago our street didn´t have telegraph poles and we had to wait 12 months to have Telefonica install a digital TRAC. It was fine for phonecalls but only provided internet at dial-up speeds, it was painfully slow. We signed up to a 50€ a month 1gb plan with Vodafone and only one month out of 18 did we reach the limit. 32Gb a month is immense - that is the equivalent of 7000 songs and 40 hours of video.

I got into the habit of reducing photos to 40% of their original size in MS Paint before sending them to family back in the UK, that alone reduced file sizes from about 5MB to 500Kb and was still a good quality, full screen image.  

I mean, if you can get your usage down to 10Gb a month, Vodafone do an internet everywhere contract for 49€ a month with speeds of 21.6Mbps. The advantage of that over a satellite or radio set up is that you can send emails from the beach.

Best of luck.

Hi Orinoco it's a n option I suppose.

Thanks, Carl

I appreciate it´s not ideal. I was thinking about it whilst I walked the dog this morning and if all you have is a laptop hooked up it´s manageable. But these days Smart TV´s, Blu Ray machines, X boxes, wireless printers... they all require internet access - even the kids Nintendo´s use the wifi router for 2 player mode, game downloads etc. Including mobile phones we have 11 gizmos that make use of the gateway, a Vodafone dongle just wouldn´t cut it.

I think if there is no chance of a Telefonica line being installed anytime soon, Foxbat´s recommendation of Tooway might be the way forward in your case. We did look at a satellite broadband service years ago, and as I recall it wasn´t so much the monthly bill that was a problem, it was the prohibitive cost of installing the service. But as I say, it was a while back, the cost of installation could have significantly reduced. 

Cheers Scout, I will of course consider this.

I've asked around to see what the neighbours do. Tooway seems ok as long as you're under about 25GB per month - but it's €10 for every GB over the limit. I guess 25 may have to be the limit we can use - perhaps less video Skying is the way forward - annoying when you finally find a way of saving a fortune in phone calls :(

Carl

 Hi Carl

You don't say exactly where you will be living - some towns have their own phone/broadband companies, so you might be lucky.  We live on the edge of Jumilla and we have phone and internet access via Telecable Jumilla.  It's not the cheapest option (we pay around 50€ a month) but we use the internet a lot, including Skype and both BBC i-player and ITV-player, thanks to VPNUK!

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing!

Sue

Hi Sue, the house is in a town called Blanca in the Valle de Ricote.

Regards, Carl

 Hi Carl

You're not too far from us - though obviously too far for TCJ to connect you.

If you are interested in reading English books - or if you just want a change of scenery! - we organise an English book swap on the first Tuesday of each month, Tuesday being market day in Jumilla.  On the other Tuesdays a few of us meet up for a coffee and gossip, which sometimes leads to the odd glass of beer or wine! Let me know if you would like further details.

We also organise Walkers Tours of Jumilla - a free walk around Jumilla for English speakers, as the tourist office only offer tours in Spanish, which many Brits (and other nationalities) find a bit challenging.  You can find more information on my website below or PM me.

Regards, Sue

Thanks Sue, I'll check it all out.

Regards, Carl

http://www.portalwimax.es/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=11&Itemid=123

www.portalwimax   covers Blanca according to their coverage map . Came across this when i saw my neighbour having a small dish installed here on Condado de Alhama near Alhman de Murcia. Dish did not point to Alhama which also has a wimax service called Telehalhama.  Company called Telitec.com  also has a mast in Murcia.

Neighbour works for microsoft in Madrid and he says wimax is the way to go . If you can see a mast you can get a signal as the advert says.

David

 Anyone considering a satellite internet connection should also consider Hylas - a recent addition to the satellite broadband fold.  Both Hylas and Tooway have there merits and I have put a few facts together on our website...

We are not too far away from you, we have a house in Mazarron and use Teletec unlimited broadband which suits our needs, it is generally very reliable, however we do have the occasional loss of signal usually when the main transmitter is being upgraded.

The system works on wireless  relay transmissions, you have a small square antena to pick up the broadband signals from local relay stations that receive signals from main transmitters ( Ours is on top of the Sierra Carrascoy at the back of Murcia city) the antena wires into a small modem that you can connect directly to a LAN socket on your PC or into a wireless router.

We use SKPE without any problems, however if you are using Vista, as we once did, you need to use the older versions of SKYPE which you can download easily. The latest version of SKPE works well on XP and Windows 7.

It costs us 23.60 euros per month including IVA.

It might be worth enquiring to see if there is a network in your location.

 We too had a problem with lack of coverage for the Internet. Telefonica cables in the road but not enough customers to connect to houses (so they say). Tried Vodafone - upto 3Mb/sec download speed which reduces to maximum 14Kb/sec or even less once a certain download has been reached on a two year contract.

Now have Esystel - 6 month contract only - 6Mb/sec claimed - 5.9Mb/sec most times with the option of telephone plus internet or internet only. They instal a small satellite signal receiver/trasmitter to your house which receives local boosted signals from Madrid.

Now my internet is so fast, it's scary! I really don't know what to do with my saved waiting time. Hehe.

Hi, we  now  use Quantis  , because of high needs with internet .

We are in Sitges ( Barcelona ) , and in our slightly remote area ,Telefonica (Movistar) was useless .

Quantis is certainly not cheap ... depending on your needs , but it does work good (so far)

Available throughout Spain , with a long list of local installers .

Thanks all, some really useful feedback from you.

Regards, Carl

I was in the same situation.  Now have satellite internet through Bentley Walker.  I pay £22.50 per month for minimum usage.  Have a look at their web site.    Martin Briggs.