David in Spain

It is high time that the Spanish people and the rest of us that live in Spain get together and complain about the prices of some things here. In particular I am thinking about the high cost of internet and mobile phone tariffs. Have to get totally jealous of the services and the prices that the people in the UK are getting. I have seen where they are paying only ten pounds or maybe 12 pounds to get 20MB download speeds.

Here in Spain the stupid thing is that the slower the internet speed the more you pay….. No honestly it is true. Here I can only get 1mb and it is more expensive than the price that I could get 6MB for if I was living in an area that had that speed available.

I don’t know what it is that make the Spanish not complain about the high cost of the internet because they are not shy with complaining about other things. I have seen that when I have been working in the camping site

Today I am looking at the prices of the mobile phone plans, and they all seem to make it as complicated as possible. Most have this thing where you pay a certain amount per month and get x number of calls or x number of minutes. Then there is the different prices per minute of the calls depending on where you are calling. What is confusing me most is whether I will be able to get my iPhone unlocked so I can use it on another network. I really don’t like Telefonica and I would have stayed with Vodafone except for the fact that the iPhone was only possible with Movistar/Telfonica

Does anyone out there have any experience of getting a phone unlocked at the end of a contract. It would be great to be able to continue using it and preferably without a contract. That way I will be able to think about the possibility of the next version of the iPhone which may be available in June or July this year.

For me another consideration would be the idea of just having a cheap old phone because I don’t make many phone calls and then get an iPad. That would be nice. I would get the iPad without the 3G and then get a MiFi device that will give me a wifi bubble wherever I am. The deal that Orange have with one of those now is €19 per month an with a 1GB limit per month. That is much better than the €15 per month with Telfonica that only gives 200mb per month. How bad is that then?

I met Chris this year in Mas Nou near Barcelona at the Podcamp Barcelona event. The Podcamp was all about new media, like blogging, audio and video podcasting, Screen casts, mashups  and a sprinkling of politicians doing what politicians do (mostly talking rubbish). I presented a podcasting for beginners session and a couple of people turned up and listened even.

Chris tells us about what it is like living in Spain in a couple of different places and has lots to say about some tech type things here in Spain. He also talks about language learning from 2 perspectives, both the teaching English angle and also regards learning Catalan and Spanish.

You can click on the picture to the left to get the podcast. It is an enhanced podcast with clickable links. More links below for Chris also. You can contact Chris at Cataspanglish on WordPress and also at Podcamp Barcelona, he even has a web site about Spanish cooking called Spanish Sauce.

Check out Chris’s views on TV in Spain and the politics of internet and Telefonica. Have you wondered why we only get low speed broadband here in Spain?

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Chris’s blog post about living in Spain

His students blog about the programming for kids

and his students’ screencast page for office training

At podcamp Barcelona were people like Don McAllister of Screencasts online. Pim pam pum and their mash ups using Flickr and other sources.

There was Mark Pendleton from Coffee Break Spanish, You might like to subscribe to that to help you learn Spanish easily with a podcast.

You don’t have to have an iPod to listen to a Podcast. A Podcast is downloadable media that you can also view in your web browser, basically an internet radio show. Or an internet TV show if it is a video podcast like BravaChat Podcast 04 with the Catalan Human castles

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The Sponsor for the show is SkypeOut – A service from Skype that allows you to call ordinary phone very cheaply from your computer. I have used it and it does work very well.

Today I went for a trip to Girona to meet with Peter Foremski of the web site MyGironaSpain and after a cup of tea, which always makes an interview run more smoothly, we got down to making a recording. I was using the Zoom H2 audio recorder which allows me to make recordings without having to carry a computer around with me.

Peter was also telling me about another web site his wife Debra has called LittleLanguageLearners with English books for all ages, Girona based but serving the whole of Spain & U.K www.LittleLanguageLearners.co.uk

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Peter Foremski