How to get mobile data in Spain
EU plans are covered. UK plans are probably paying around two pounds a day. And the thing that actually drains plans in Spain is not maps or video, it is automatic photo backup.
Leonardo B. Oct 19, 20264 minute read
On an EU plan you need nothing: Spain is covered at your domestic rates. On a UK plan you are probably paying a daily fee. From anywhere else you need a plan, and buying a Spanish SIM is straightforward but still costs you an hour you could spend somewhere better.
The only question that matters
Not where you are going. Where your plan was sold.
| Your plan is from | In Spain |
|---|---|
Any EU country | Included at domestic rates, within fair use |
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway | Same |
United Kingdom | Usually a daily fee of around £2 to £2.50, O2 being the common exception |
Outside the EU | Your operator's international rate, with no regulatory ceiling |
For the UK case, do the arithmetic rather than the instinct. A fortnight at £2.47 a day is roughly £35, which is more than a travel plan for Spain for the same period, and your home allowance has a fair-use cap on top.
Buying locally, if you want to
Spain is easier than Italy about this. Identity registration is still required, so bring your passport, but there is no tax-code complication waiting for you.
Movistar, Vodafone, Orange and a long tail of cheaper resellers all sell prepaid. The resellers are considerably cheaper than the big three and are sold in phone shops and some supermarkets.
For a trip of a week or two it is still not worth it. You spend an hour, you lose your own number unless your phone runs two lines, and the saving is small. For a month or longer, or if you come back repeatedly, it starts to make sense.
In most of Europe the local SIM is not expensive, it is just slow. You pay in time rather than in money.
What you will actually use
Spain is a moderate-usage destination with two spikes.
Maps and transit, constantly in the cities. Madrid and Barcelona are walkable and the metro is good, which means a lot of short route lookups rather than long navigation sessions.
Restaurant lookups at odd hours. Spanish eating times defeat most visitors, and the useful question is which places are actually open at nine on a Tuesday, which is a lookup every evening.
Photos. The spike. This is a country people photograph heavily, and automatic backup running on mobile data is what empties plans here rather than anything deliberate.
Driving in Andalusia or the north adds a navigation load, and the white villages and mountain roads are exactly where you want a downloaded map.
Coverage
Good to excellent across the mainland, including the smaller towns and most of the coast.
Where it thins:
- Mountain roads in the Pyrenees, the Picos de Europa, and the Sierra Nevada
- Rural Extremadura and inland Castile, where the gaps are real but short
- Some of the smaller Canary and Balearic islands, and the ferries between them
None of this is a reason for concern on a city trip. It is a reason to download an offline map before a driving day.
Practical details
The Canaries and Balearics are Spain for this purpose. Both are in the EU and covered by the same roaming rules, which catches people who assume islands are treated separately. Ceuta and Melilla are also Spain. Andorra is not, and it sits in the middle of a mountain drive plenty of people make.
Gibraltar is not the EU either. If your route runs down there, your phone may register on a different network with different terms than it had twenty minutes earlier.
Public Wi-Fi is common and serviceable. Cafes, hotels, many municipal squares. Enough for the evenings, not enough for the day.
Card payment is near-universal, which reduces the ATM-hunting that drives data use in some other countries.
What to do
- Check where your plan was sold. EU plan, nothing to do.
- UK plan, do the sum. Daily fee times trip length against a travel plan.
- Buy a plan for Spain before you fly, or a European regional plan if you are crossing into Portugal or France.
- Turn off automatic photo backup on mobile data. In Spain specifically, this is the thing that drains plans.
- Download offline maps before any driving day in the mountains or the south.
Key facts
- EU plans are covered. Spain is roam like at home, at domestic rates.
- UK plans usually pay around £2 to £2.50 a day. Two weeks is roughly £35.
- A Spanish prepaid SIM needs ID registration but no tax code. Easier than Italy, still an hour.
- The Canaries and Balearics count as Spain for roaming. Andorra and Gibraltar do not.
- Coverage is strong except in the mountain ranges and parts of the rural interior.
- Photo backup is the usual reason a plan runs out here. Turn it off on mobile data.
Sources
UK daily roaming fees differ by network and change. Check your own operator's current charge for Spain before relying on the figure above.