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Home > Phone/Internet > Mobiles
Mobile Phones in Spain
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Even if you are coming to Spain for a holiday it’s best not to use your UK phone – it will cost a fortune – roaming charges are expensive. Either buy a new phone with a Spanish network, buy a new SIM card and put it in your existing phone, or rent a mobile or SIM card.
Buying a mobile phone in Spain
Like everywhere there are many mobile phone shop in Barcelona, so you can go direct to Vodafone or Orange etc, a mobile phone shop, or to a large store such as El Corte Inglés or FNAC.
As soon as you have entered the PIN (which comes with your new mobile) you can switch the language to English. The messages from your service provider will be in Spanish though. Accessing your voicemail messages can be a bit tricky if you don't speak Spanish and sometimes you have to set up your own message before you can access any voicemail messages. Ask the shop assistant to help you with those things when you buy.
Buy an unlocked mobile
I found one of the best things to do was to buy an unlocked phone. I bought one from the UK because mobile phones are now cheaper to buy in the UK than they are in Spain. You can then swap a Spanish SIM card with a UK SIM card in the same phone depending on whether you're in Spain or the UK.
As you can now buy very cheap unlocked mobiles or sim free phones, for about £30, I keep two mobiles on the go. It's much cheaper to send text messages to the UK using my UK phone with it's UK sim card, than it is to send sms via my Spanish network. If you're already in Spain, buy a cheap unlocked phone online... Mobile Phones Direct do a good choice of sim free phones:
 There's also the option of unlocking your current mobile phone so that you can put a Spanish sim inside. Nokia phones are easy and free to unlock, but you often need to pay to unlock Motorola and other brands.
Another thing worth keeping in mind is whether you're going to have an internet connection. Sometimes the all-in-one ADSL packages that come with a phone contract are a good deal. I have a mobile contract with Vodafone as well as Vodafone ADSL. I pay one invoice monthly which includes a certain amount of free minutes on my mobile, my ADSL and mobile internet in my flat at the same price. With this deal I also get Vodafone En Casa, which means I can call any Spanish landline from my mobile, as long as I'm at home, for 1c per minute.
Buying a new SIM card
If you have an unlocked phone you can buy any new SIM card. However, if your mobile is locked to a certain network, such as Vodafone, you need to buy a SIM on the same network that you're locked to. Any mobile phone shop will be able to sell you a SIM card. It’s a good idea to put your new SIM card into your mobile whilst you’re in the shop, then if you have problems understanding what to do, or things aren’t working out, you can ask for help then and there.
Internet cafés and telephone booth shops also sometimes sell SIM cards.
SIM4Travel – One SIM Card for over 100 Countries
SIM4Travel sell sim cards specially designed for travelling. You can choose a pack based on how much travelling you're planning to do and cut the cost of your roaming charges significantly.
They offer a low cost plan for international mobile phone calls whilst letting you receive most calls for free. Their travel plan covers over 100 countries and is on a pay-as-you-go basis – you can top up directly from your mobile phone. If you're travelling rather than moving abroad permanently, this may be a better option than buying a new phone: www.sim4travel.com
Truphone Local Anywhere
The other option is Truphone Local Anywhere, which will be expanded to Spain soon. With Truphone Local Anywhere you have a new sim card which gives you local rates wherever you are, and that means no roaming charges. At the moment the Truphone Local Anywhere SIM only covers the US and UK, but Truphone are working on expanding their network.
www.truephone.com
Renting a mobile or SIM
A company called Bright lets you do just
this. They have two shops in Barcelona (and more across Spain)
where you can talk to someone in English, German or French. They
accept all major credit cards as well as Paypal transfers. They
offer different plans depending on how much usage you require,
starting at €5 per month with contracts for as short
as one month.
Bright
Calle Lincoln 1, Barcelona 08006
tel: 00 34 93 238 6727
www.thebrightco.com
Topping Up on Pay-as-you-go
It’s very easy to top up your mobile if you have a Spanish credit or debit card. You can simply go to any cashpoint and credit your phone (you need to know your mobile phone number).
Otherwise you can top up your mobile easily in any of the Tabac shops; buy pre-paid cards from newsagents, Tabacs, supermarkets and petrol stations; or go to any mobile phone shop for your network. You always need to know your mobile number to top up.
The Mobile Phone Industry in Spain
Mobile phones are so integral to modern life they may as well be grafted to our hands, and it would be impossible to imagine operating socially as well as in a business environment without a mobile phone. Spain has embraced the mobile revolution, and like the UK there are now more mobile phones in the country than there are people, which may sound like a confusing statistic unless you factor in the upgrade cycle and throw away culture of the mobile phone industry that is replicated globally. The mobile phone industry in Spain is a particularly profitable one, and their home grown network Movistar is the richest mobile phone operator on the planet, and has services not just in Spain but in much of Latin America, which accounts for the generation of such a large income.
Spanish Operators and Deals
- MoviStar – What with being the largest mobile network in Spain they also offer some of the most comprehensive deals and packages, ranging from simple pay as you go deals right up to packages aimed at heavy business users who want the best handsets and price plans as well as global use of their MoviStar phone and connection. Then there are of course mobile broadband packages, offering people without landlines or travelling business people the opportunity to take their broadband connection with them and use MoviStar's high speed 3G networks for work on the road.
- Yoigo – If you're looking for 3G networking and mobile internet then a Yoigo deal may be the way to go, and they are officially ranked as fourth largest Spanish operator. Though when they launched their 3G networks in 2006 there was limited use even in urban areas, things are looking up now, and of course there are competitive deals to be had.
- Simyo – Part of a global group of virtual mobile network operators who piggyback on larger company's services and offer cut down packages, Simyo have the advantage of not requiring minimum contracts or minimum monthly usage, and also all Simyo handsets come unlocked so you can use any other network's SIM card in them. If you're looking for a bargain mobile phone deal and don't mind missing out on some of the perks of a dedicated network's contract then Simyo may be the way to go.
Buying a Mobile Phone
Before you buy a mobile you'll need to think about exactly what you want out of it, as these days with technology developing so rapidly it's easy to pay more for a phone that has features you'll never use. Equally, you may get a handset and be disappointed by it's lack of certain things you've come to expect. The best advice is to visit a mobile network's store and see the phones at first hand. You can then browse their mobile phones deals online and see the kinds of price plans on offer without having to commit.
More options for buying a mobile phone
The Link offer good deals on mobiles and plenty of choice, whats more, if you buy online you get your phone delivered free of charge the next day (but they only deliver to the UK).
Quite often it's now cheaper to buy phones in the UK than it is in Spain, so whenever I go home to the UK I check out the latest offers. You can do this online and have your mobile delivered to time with your next trip home and save yourself a bit of money.
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