Hello, I just moved to Madrid two days ago. I´ll be here for eight months.

I "need" cable. What are the steps or companies to deal with? Thanks for your help!

Mmm...I recommend you an "ADSL" connection. It isn't expensive at all, you don't need to pay a cable installation, and it usually works fine.
I live in Valencia. I have a cable connection but it doesn't work as well as I expected. The ADSL connection seems to work better.

I think in Madrid, as in Valencia, the leading cable company is ONO.

Ono does not operate in Madrid. Only Auna (Madritel) is allowed to do it. However, they charge you monthly fees for the cable modem. The speed they offer is supposed to be higher (777 kbps). ADSL has speeds of 256 Kbps, 512 Kbps and 2 Mbps.

Note that this is not the real speed. In fact, ISPs only guarantee 10% of the maximum speed.

Sorry, I didn't know. I tought it because I saw ONO advertisements in Madrid...I guess they were related to phone, not to Internet.

How does the Madritel cabl connection work? In Valencia, it's worth getting an ADSL connection more than a cable one.

BOINK!

THIS JUST IN!! Got a kind of SPAM email (which I NEVER read) but this one was intriguing.

It was from and about a new (?) site http://www.TelefonicaInEnglish.com/ so I checked out their website. Decent site all about getting phone lines installed, internet connections, etcetera and ALL IN ENGLISH.

I was especially interested in internet offerings (broadband, that is) so I checked out their page @ http://www.telefonicainenglish.com/adsl.htm which gives the ADSL connection speeds and fees. Wow. It's all SO shocking SLOW and all SO shockingly expensive for what you get.

So I went to my the website of my current CABLE internet provider, RoadRunner, here in the USA and compared their services and prices. Wow. What a difference. Their page @ http://www.rr.com/rdrun/ states the following: Then I went back to the TelefonicaInEnglish.com site and they offer the following:

BASIC
- 512 Kbps connection
- 10 x faster than dial-up*
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- SPECIAL OFFER
Free modem
39,07€ a month

CLASS
- 1mb connection
- 20 x faster than dial-up
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- Wireless Router
74,98€ a month

ADVANCED
- 2mb connection
- 40 x faster than dial-up
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- Wireless Router
120,00€ a month

I won't go any further than this although there is a faster, more expensive additional option.

Summary: The ADVANCED 2mb connection in Spain costs you about $160 USD per month when a 5mb cable connection in the USA costs about $50 per month.

What a sorry state of affairs. WIRE THAT CITY WITH CABLE/FIBER OPTIC WIRE ALREADY! But why bother doing that when they can charge (and apparently GET) people those high prices and low connection speeds. Ugh!

Saludos, MadridMan

I live it here every day MM. I have the Telefonica Basic Package(512 Kbs). But it works very well. I have only had 2 or 3 episodes of temporary outage in 13 months.

Telefonica is not the best choice nowadays in Internet access.

There are great offers in Wanadoo : 2 Mbps Internet access plus all your calls between spanish phone numbers for 36 €.

Or via cable-modem, for 36 € you get 3 Mbps with Ono .

For Spain it is like science fiction

Fernando

But Fernando, there's almost no cable modem access in the city of Madrid - UNLESS something has changed in the recent past. Seems the last time I checked the only place was at the Exposition Center (Parque Ferial) outside of the city.

And how can Wannado charge 36 Euros for 2Mb connectivity (ADSL, I suppose) PLUS your in-Spain calls when Telefonica is charging more than double that price???

Saludos, MadridMan

You are right in both things:

1) There is only one cable operator in each region. In Madrid we have Auna Cable , which has an offer of 1 Mbps Internet access for 45 € per month. It is not a good company because its strategy is to grown to be bought by Ono. They don't care to have good offers and being competitive.

Note that cable deploy in Spain (and in general in Europe) has happened in the last 10 years, while in the USA cable operator have been on-air for decades (that's due to political decissions, in Europe was easier to deploy telephone and TV due to distance and population density).

2) Telefonica has been the unique telecommunications operator for 80 years, having a virtual monopoly in telephony till 1993. When the market was liberalized due to european directives and political decissions, Telefonica instantly became the dominant operator.

To protect free competence, our telecommunications laws state that dominant operator have intervened prices. Telefonica would want to offer very low prices to put a high entry barrier to its competence, but Telefonica's prices are regulated, and can only be lowered by the regulatory institution.

You can make yourself an idea: Telefonica still have a 85% of the market share in fixed telephony, a 48% in mobile telephony and a 40% in the Internet access market.

Fernando

Jazztel is offering 4 Mbps plus free calls for 32,95 €. In fact, that's the ADSL line I'm going to hire. I'll tell you how it is when I have it available but I have a friend in Barcelona that says it's very good.

Note that this offer only applies to those areas where Jazztel has coverage (the same applies to Wanadoo).