Hey Spain travelers,

I have a question for everyone. With the internet age upon us, I am planning on using my hotmail account to stay in touch with friends while I am in Spain. But what about those people out there who have been dragging their feet and not quite jumped into world wide web (i.e. my parents)? I am planning on comparing calling card plans with the big three companies here in the U.S. and see what they offer. But is there a better deal out there?

Hi,

I was told the phone cards you buy in Spain are the best way to go for this country. You can buy them at the tobacco shops (booths) or post offices. You buy them by amount of minutes, and just insert in phones. It will automatically deduct minutes and let you know what you have left. There is no codes to remember. I never used one myself, but I was told it was a good deal. Have a great trip!!

hola twentysomething,

telefónica españa es un rollo...

telephone service in spain is nationalized, meaning that there has traditionally been ONE service provider, which translates to government owned = inflated rates = no competition = decent to mediocre connection.

ever notice how not too many people spend time on phone? and some of you may have experienced friends or family there that freak out if you talk for more than a few minutes... this is because it is not a very efficient system and it's expensive.

my friends and i used to do this truco (trick) where you could fool a phone in the phone cabins by tying a small piece of "hilo dental" (dental floss) around the moneda that has a hole in the middle. this tricks the machine into thinking that an infinite amount of credit had been entered for calling. we called all over spain, to the usa, and to a friend in france all for free... they have since disabled this truco so that you can no longer do it... ha ha, the dumb things you do as a kid... now they will come after me and make me pay it all back.

ok, so i'm long winded... for possibly cheap rates, contact bigzoo.com. they offer .03 cents per minutes anytime anywhere in the usa, and let's see, i could call my fiancé in japan for .15 cents per minute... but i don't know if they allow you to call FROM spain to the usa... maybe they have one of those toll-free international access numbers? worth looking into, because telefónica will certainly charge you more than ANY from the usa...

also, are you using a cyber café in spain for your email? i'm pretty sure that much of spain is not wired 28.8 data transfer... my old family's house in infantes is wired with cat1 cable (which was used in the 1920's) and is not even capable of fax, and much of spain is this way (meaning you won't get any dial-out from a laptop).

anyway, i'm sure some of the other local yocals around this message board have some great ideas for you too... this is a pretty unique and knowledgeable crowd here!

good luck, twentysomething! have a great time because you only have that choice upon going to spain!

¡viva españa!

ps> mary, sorry i do not want to make it seem like you are "wrong." you are right that the telefónica cards are probably the easiest thing to use... you can just put in the card and the machine does the rest... so there is definitely a convenience to using them...

[This message has been edited by real_megia (edited 06-20-2000).]

Phone cards are by far the easiest way of using public telephones and are increasingly available in many outlets - not just in the tobacconists and post offices, but news agents, kioskos etc. Go for it!

Spain's telecom service has been de-nationalised for some time now, which means that Telefonica are being dragged - albeit reluctantly!! - into the 21st century! They constantly introduce new low-payment schemes, and their tariff is now so complex, you have to find a member of Mensa to explain it to you!

The craziest thing is that Telefonica rates are linked to the provinces, not the distance. So to call the town of La Herradura which is in Granada province and about 15 minutes drive from me here in Malaga, costs me much more than calling, say, Marbella, which is a good hour and a half away - but still in the same province!

There are now many, many competing companies, particularly for foreign calls, so long-term visitors would do well to shop around on arrival.

There are always reports in the papers about trucos being used in phone boxes to allow free calls. Advice : don't try it! They are cracking down seriously.

And I beleive that the whole network is gradually being upgraded to allow decent rates of data transfer. Seems to be OK where I live.

dave

real_megia,

I guess things have changed a lot since last time you were here. Nowadays there are lots of competitors and, apart from local calls, the rest are quite cheap if you choose the right operator. For instance, Retevisión has a great offer to call Europe and the States for only 15 pesetas / minute (at least, this is what they advertise).

As for the networks, most of the lines are 56 K. We also have ISDN lines at 64 K(note that the European standar is faster than the American one) and also ADSL lines up to 2 Mb (this ones are still under test).

We are not that out of date regarding telecommunications. The only problem is prices!!.

Regards,

Antonio

Thanks to everyone for responding. I will look into the prepaid calling cards when I arrive in Spain for staying in touch when not using email.

Also, yes, I was planning on using some of the cyber cafes in the larger cities. Based on my reading of Let's Go these places seem to be growing in popularity.

The 'tarjeta telefonica' that you can buy at a tabacconist in Barajas airport or wherever is not sold by 'minutes.' You can buy a 1,000 peseta card or a 2,000 peseta card. You are charged the existing rate for calls (on Sunday AM I called Philadelphia from Potes (Cantabria) and it cost something like 500 pesetas, CHEAP!). They are supposed to expire in 6-months but I have used them for a longer duration than that. I think they are one of the greatest inventions since 'sliced bread.' But I would like to be able to use the same card I use in Spain in other parts of Europe. Hopefully that is on the horizon since charges are stated in Euros.