iPhone + Yoigo

Going abroad with an iPhone that you want to work without costing you exorbitant amounts of money can be a little exasperating, especially when you have to navigate around hard-to-use mobile phone company websites in foreign languages. Spain is no different in this respect and after a quick review of the three leading companies' websites (Movistar, Orange and Vodafone) it seemed like getting the iPhone onto a network was going to be both frustrating and expensive.

Once in Spain though, a quick trip to The Phone House (The Carphone Warehouse in other countries) revealed that my best option was in fact neither of the big guys, but rather a newcomer in the Spanish telecoms market called Yoigo, and I have to say that despite hesitations, the experience has been very good.

Yoigo runs its own 3G networks in the major cities and (in Madrid at least) coverage is very good. I would guess that added to the fact that the company is relatively new and therefore user numbers are below dominant operator levels, the service is very fast as well. Outside the cities, Yoigo users' phones switch to Movistar which provides arguably the best coverage in Spain, which is good given that there are many remote small villages which tend to be left out.

The Yoigo brand has an informal easy-to-understand feel to it which is reflected in its pricing too. Not only are contract and pay-as-you-go prices identical - the only difference being that with a contract you are automatically billed via your bank account - but there are only two plans, keeping things simple. Prices are competitive too.

The data plan however - the most important part for iPhone/Smartphone users - puts all other operators to shame. Not only is it (like the talk plans) the same both for pay-as-you-go and contract users, but it is cheap (at least for Spain) at 0.12 cents per kB capped at €1.20 per day.

Hopefully the incumbents will start to follow suit making the mobile data market more competitive as more data-intensive users move over to Yoigo, but for now and for short stays, Yoigo is just what I was looking for.