Postcard from Portugal

I'm on holiday in Portugal for a couple of weeks. I thought I'd pop by here to report my findings re: WWAN/HSDPA usage outside of my home network (T-Mobile in the UK)...

For a few days I was just roaming on the 'P TMN' network with my T-Mobile SIM. This worked excellently in terms of connection stability and speed, but at a cost of £1.50/MB (about $3 a meg!) it was prohibitively expensive for all but the briefest of email checks.

So I decided to investigate getting a local SIM instead, to ease the pain of not being able to check NBR...

To cut a long story short, I bought a 'cartã6 banda larga pré-paga' (pre-paid broadband SIM) from TMN for €14.90 including 300MB usage for use within 10 days. Even with zero Portuguese, this was a painless process and the staff in the TMN shop were friendly and knowledgeable, with an excellent grasp of English to compensate for my embarrassing lack of language skills. The only things needed from me were the €14.90 and my name (for the printed invoice).
From what I could tell, Vodafone (the other mobile shop I stumbled across) don't sell pay-as-you-go broadband - only contracts and only with a USB dongle bundle - so useless for my temporary holiday broadband needs.

Installation was a breeze. I've downgraded my Z to XP using the included disc and online drivers/utilities; it turns out that the XP version of GlobeTrotter Connect supplied for XP isn't locked to T-Mobile like the Vista version was. So I just needed to shutdown, remove the battery, swap the SIM for my new one, replace the battery and switch on again.
When in XP, I was prompted for a PIN and I used the PIN printed on a little card supplied with my TMN SIM. It then just connected and worked first time without complaint. I'm impressed with just how easy it was and only slightly bugged that I didn't bother doing this earlier in the week, potentially saving myself some hefty roaming fees from T-Mobile...

Topping up my usage (in case of exceeding the 300MB included with the SIM) will cost €10 for 300MB/10 days or €30 for 900MB/30 days. This is expensive compared to my home contract cost of £15 for 3GB per month... but is *way* cheaper than roaming costs and still OK value for a temporary/PAYG solution, in my opinion.

So now my only problem is catching up with the 50 or so pages of new posts in the Z owners thread... hehe

Oh, I attach a few pics showing the hardships I've been having to endure over the past week or so. Only one pic of the Z here I'm afraid, but I've been busy enjoying some time with my little girl (aged 1 this week).

 

Nice photos mate . Don't know where you're staying, but Portugal (together with Spain) is one of my favorite locations.

Enjoy (while it lasts)

Cheers,
Miki

 

Thanks.

We're staying in Praia de Luz in the Algarve and it's lovely. A bit too hot for me today though at about 34 degrees C...

I bought a waterproof camera for this trip (an Olympus Mju 1030SW) and it's fantastic fun for underwater snaps in the pool. The only trouble is it's a pretty poor performer out of the water. Luckily, I have my Canon 40D with me for use on dry land. What with my Z, two cameras, flash, lenses, mp3 player, speakers, headphones, adapters, chargers, etc, etc... my hand luggage must have looked quite interesting on the xray machine.

 

Thanks for this info - just off to Praia da Luz myself nxt week, so interested to see your comments as I needed broadband access. I have seen on one of the forums elsewhere that Vodafone DID bring in a PAYG system complete with dongle for 60 euros, so was hoping to give this a try. Handy to know about the alternative. The vodafone system sounds similar with similar data bundle and 10 day limit, and therefore as I do not have a dongle will go fo that one if possible. Do you know if TMN did a package with dongle and how much??? Where is the shop - I was told to try Vodafone at the airport. Was it easy to setup without knowing Portugese, and how do you topup - i.e. any english instructions?? Does anyone else know anything about PAYG in Portugal?? Hope the weather remains good!!!!

On an associated topic anyone know re PAYG in Menorca?? Will need this next year. I run an Internet business and hence do need to check e-mail a few times per day!


Paul Bromley

 

Forgot to ask, was the signal good in Luz???

Paul Bromley

 

I'm absolutely sure that TMN do a package with a USB modem, because the first TMN shop I tried told me they only sold this package and I needed to go to their other branch in the city if I wanted a SIM-only pack (I was in Portimao that day, and the main shop is down by the river just along the road from a square with a large fountain. I took a map from the tourist office into the first TMN branch and they marked for me exactly where their other branch was.).

I found Vodafone and TMN shops in Portimao and also all three networks (can't remember the name of the third) had branches in Shopping Albufeira - a large shopping mall about 1 km from Guia, nr Albufeira, worth a visit in its own right on a cloudy/rainy day.

Mine was easy peasy to setup as I already had the modem working in the UK - I just swapped the SIM card and entered the new SIM's PIN number by prompted by my existing software. That said, the staff in both TMN branches that I tried seemed to have great English and they were helping a bloke get a USB dongle working on his own laptop as I was at the counter... so if you take your laptop with you they might help you click through any installation of Portuguese software that might be needed.
Topping up was really easy. I couldn't get it to work via a Multibanco ATM though (I suspect you need a Portuguese bank card for that). I found a newsagent with a "PayShop" sign, just up the road from the church in Luz, opposite the Volare Pizza Restaurant. Just give them the little card that you get with the SIM showing the reference number and the appropriate payment and they'll put the details in their magic machine behind the counter. Couldn't be easier really (no Portuguese necessary!).

Have fun and I hope the weather stays OK for you!

Sorry, I don't know anything about PAYG in Menorca - this was my first experience of HSDPA roaming.

I was staying slightly up the hill from the town centre, in Luz Parque, and the signal was excellent on TMN. I also used it at the coffee shop at Baptista supermarket in the centre without any problems at all... so I'd imagine it's good everywhere.

 

...glad you liked here ;-)
and hope you come back again next year .... )))))


cheers from Portugal

 

Hi thanks for all of this info. I know all of the places that you mention as I have travelled to the Algarve quite a few times - love Luz itself! Will hopefully try and get the vodafone offering as I have a Vodafone datacard here, and could do with a USB stick (have the eeePC 900 running XP - hence it will not accomodate the pcmcia card). I take it that your USB dongel was not locked to any network - is that usually the case. For future trips I am going to acquire an i-sim card from Dealextreme which should enable me to use any carrier if the dongle is locked.

Many thanks again.

Paul Bromley

 

Actually, I've already booked for two weeks next year I liked it so much! The only problem was sharing a room with the baby meant we didn't get a lot of sleep... but you can't have everything!

No problem. My HSDPA modem is built into my laptop (a Vaio Z11 UK version), so no dongle required. The SIM card slots in behind the battery.
In my case, the laptop shipped with Vista and the WWAN software was heavily T-Mobile branded and I believe locked to T-Mobile (although I didn't test that). But I downgraded to XP soon after I bought it, and the XP version of the WWAN software wasn't locked to any network. The hardware isn't locked at all, unlike the Japanese Vaios which tend to have hardware locked to a specific network (?DoCoMo).
Dunno about USB dongles as I've never used one, but I haven't heard of them being locked either. Obviously if you're going to buy the SIM and dongle together, it should work fine. Ask the Vodafone staff if your new USB modem will work with a UK Vodafone SIM when you get back home, I guess?