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Telephones
Spain's country code is 34.
Telefónica phone directories:
white pages for Spain
yellow pages for Spain
Making
international phone calls:
-
Telefónica: If you're new in
Spain, be prepared. You'll soon acquire 'Telefónica Rage'. Fortunately, new
ways are springing up to compete with Telefónica, which is finally forcing
them to cut their rates and possibly improve their service. Rates for UK/USA
are 12 cents€ fixed fee, plus 12 cents€/minute. (My latest beef with
Telefónica is their aging cables: these days you may receive a 'sobrecarga
en la red' message when you try to make a call -- this tends to last a whole
day or more.)
-
"Re-seller"
services (re-sellers are companies that buys bandwidth at wholesale prices
from the big companies that own the network). To use, you either prefix your
calls with a 4-digit code, or sign up to use them as your default phone
service (at which point, Telefónica men with dark suits and brass knuckles
will visit your house -- OK, OK, that's not totally true). See Tele2
or Aló.
Tele2
offers 8 cents€/minute for calls to Europe, USA, and Canada, 3
cents€/minute within Spain, and 1 (0,5 non-peak) cent€/minute for local
calls (now that the monopoly on local calls has ended too). The downside
with Tele2 is it's difficult to get an itemized list of your calls.
A reseller variant is Dial
Abroad, which clocks in at an excellent 4 cents€/minute for
offpeak times and 7 cents€/minute for peak (plus 8 cents€ connection).
You dial 902 902 952, then dial the number you want. The charge listed is
only Telefónica's 902 costs; no other charges and no sign up. The number
must be a geographic landline (as opposed to, say, a USA 800 number).
USA:For calls from the USA to Spain, see ABTolls
for a comparative list of re-sellers. The best is now 5 cents/minute, plus
$1/month.
-
Phonecards.
See 1st4phonecards
with rates to UK or USA listed at around 8 cents€/minute.
-
VoIP
(good service is generally not guaranteed unless you have enough bandwidth:
ADSL or cable modem). There are 3 options:
phone-to-phone: You buy an IP phone, or you plug your ordinary phone
into an adapter which then goes into your router and modem. SIPCall
is UK-based; iConnectHere,
Vonage
and Packet8
are USA-based. With iConnectHere, for example, you pay $20/month and get the
IP phone and a USA phone number for free (this number is virtual -- it
doesn't matter where in the world you are). Calling is 3.9 cents/minute to
the UK, 1.1 cents/minute to the USA, and 6.3 cents/minute to Spain (so you
might want to get this service in addition to your Spanish line for all your
foreign calls). Vonage
offers unlimited calling to the US and Canada for a monthly fee of US$40.
UK: SIPCall
gives you a UK number -- you can make or receive calls as if in the UK.
net-to-phone: You buy a headset and use your computer directly. iConnectHere
offers the rates listed above, but without the $20/month and the IP phone. PeopleCall
offers 4 cents€/minute to UK/USA, 2 cents€/minute within Spain, and 15
cents€/minute to Spain mobile phone, plus a per-call fee. Or see Net2Phone.
Note that with PeopleCall, and maybe all providers, you need a public IP.
That means if you have your ADSL connected to a router (the router then has
the public IP, and the computers don't), then you need an IP phone or Cisco
ATA connected to the router. PeopleCall has their own products to do this,
which aren't cheap. With these products, PeopleCall gives you a new line
with a 7xx prefix. Calling between 7xx numbers is free. Between a 7xx number
and a non-7xx number, it costs as an interprovincial call would.
net-to-net: See Skype
or Free
World Dialup: calls are free. Both parties need to have the
appropriate software downloaded (plus computer headsets).
-
Mobile
phones. Obvious convenience, but calls are not cheap. Amena
offers a 3 cents€/minute special for 5 frequently called numbers.
- Callback
services. I'm told the rates aren't particularly good.
When you get your telephone
installed, expect an installation fee of 150€ (250€ for nonresidents). By
all means, try to just change the name on the existing account where you're
moving to (if there is one) -- that's free. (Moving the address of an existing
account is 60€.)
Note that only 900 numbers are
toll-free; 90x numbers are not.
UK:
For £10 a month, UKDivert
provides a UK telephone number that diverts calls from the UK to Spain.
UPDATE JAN 08
Interlink comunicaciones
offer broadband internet and telephone services in and around the Chiclana area.
They provide services by way of a network of radio masts, so even in areas where
telefonica lines are not available they can still provided a service.
For more information please
go to www.interlink-espana.com
myCADIZ.biz
publishes this information in good faith. We cannot be responsible for any
consequences arising from its content.
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