So where have I been? Down the beach? Working hard (goes without saying!)? Well I haven't been down the beach that's for sure. It's mid September and the rain has arrived! Yes, it does rain in Spain and not just on the plane!
Spain is no longer the country of donkeys and goat herdsmen as I am sure you know. The cities of Barcelona and Madrid are as modern as any city in Europe. Everyone has a mobile and we can get internet broadband and satellite t.v. BUT this is still Spain and some things are not up to speed yet. In rural areas you may not have a phone line and therefore no internet connection. You can get service through a satellite link but I am not sure of the costs and I beleive the speed is slow. Surely in towns though there is no problem? Well yes and no. In Calpe for example, a reasonable sized town, I am told there is nowhere that can acheive speeds of 2mb although they quote up to 8mb. In reality I never acheive more than 1mb. Compare this to the U.K where sky advertize 50mb as do Virgin.
We also have the weather to contend with. Along with the rain we have had electrical storms and this means we have had virtually no internet access since Saturday. In fact the weather regularly knocks out the electricity which means we have to sip our wine by candle light!
Without circuit breakers there is often damage to small electrical devices, one of which is likely to be your wireless router. Telefonica will charge for a replacement and these are around €80. Thre are other service providers but your telephone line is provided by telefonica who will charge line rental. This is similar to B.T in england who ironically own Telefonica.
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