Telephone Services Spain

Telephone services in Spain are quite well developed with land lines, mobile phones and telephone booths being extremely common everywhere. Broadband internet connections, WiFi and GPRS services are also easily available in big cities and in the densely populated coastal areas of Andalucia. While earlier, there was only one telephone services provider in Spain, the government owned ‘Telefonica’, the market is now full of a number of telephone service companies competing for consumers as a result of de regulation and the opening up of the telephone services market. There are a number of telephone companies that provide cheap international and national call rates and cost effective mobile and land line services.

As a tourist in Andalucia, using your national network mobile phone on roaming can prove to be very costly, unless you travel frequently and have some tie up with your network so that it provides you with cheap international roaming services. Mobile phones in Spain are available without any contracts and if you have a phone that can accommodate a GSM SIM card, then buying a local SIM card, which is very reasonable to purchase, is a good idea. This will automatically make your incoming calls free and your outgoing calls much cheaper. In fact, if you are lucky, then you should easily be able to find a scheme from one or the other service provider that provides you with up to ninety per cent talk time of your card value. This again will make your calling and receiving extremely cheap and convenient. In case you do not have a phone that works with a GSM SIM and plan to stay in Spain long or make a large number of phone calls, then you can invest in a cheap mobile phone that will cost you somewhere around a hundred euros and will have at least twenty to thirty euros worth of talk time. However, in case you want to use your national network phone in Spain on roaming and have got the means to do so, then you should definitely get your phone here since Spanish phone networks have tie ups with most major international phone companies and you will be able to use your phone on roaming without any problems. It is however advised that you check with your service provider before coming to Spain and also get international roaming activated at least a week before you travel.

Another option for making local, national and international calls in Spain are the easily accessible and common place telephone booths or "cabinas telefónicas". They work like any other phone booth, where you just have to lift up the receiver, drop a coin and dial your number. Most of them take Euro cents, but there are some where you will require a calling card. There are also some public call offices where you can make the call from your cubicle and pay later at the desk. You will find these public phones scattered all over the place, on the streets, in shops, pubs and bars and in restaurants. But remember that these phones will cost more when you use them in a restaurant or bar.

In case you plan to be a frequent user of public phones, then buying a calling card is advised, since these are more convenient than carrying around loads of the correct change with you. These telephone cards (tarjetas teléfonicas)  can be bought at local cigarette shops, post offices and in stores selling SIM cards in denominations of six, ten and twenty Euros. There are a number of phone booths where you can make a call only with a card. Buying a telephone calling card from a private (even Telefonica is a private company now, but is still a very government like company and is therefore, not counted here) company can prove to be quite profitable since most of these firms will offer you discounted rates because of the immense competition

A helpful tip: All local mobile phone numbers are nine digits and begin with the digit 6. In case you see a mobile number starting with 9, then replace the 9 with 6 before dialling. Similarly, almost all fixed line numbers in Andalucia begin with 95 and have 9 digits. So if you see a land line number with 7 digits, then prefix 95 before dialing.