Free Mobile in Spain

[Allan]

Is anybody else having problems using Free Mobile in Spain?

My wife and I both have mobiles from Free and neither of us can get any service between Barcelona Airport and La Jonquera. A few miles from the frontier we can get service from Yoigo (a Spanish provider) but that's all.

Bizarrely the same thing happened last year. We drove to Barcelona and the phones worked fine, we then went to Thailand for a month and on our return the phones didn't work at all in Spain. After a couple of months it went back to normal. This year, we again went to Thailand and the phones didn't work on our return.

There was a suggestion last year that Free were having contractual problems with their Spanish providers but it seems strange to have the same problems at the same time of the year.

[montgolfiere]

we had the same problem with Free, both the 2 € and 16€ contracts, in August last year. Then the phones worked ok in November, the last time we were in Spain...it would be a pain if they have the same issues again.....

[martyn94]

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago. I initially thought it might have been a faux manoeuvre on my part, but I checked all the settings on my phone and couldn't find anything. It didn't matter at the time so I took it no further. But I'll check next Tuesday when I have to go to Figueres.

I do, however, load the offline google maps for the area so I can navigate, which is what I mostly want.

[martyn94]

By way of afterthought, I've noticed in the past that Free tend to update their network settings quite often. If you were away in Thailand, maybe that didn't happen for you, which might explain why it came right after a while.

If you have the latest version of Android, you can reset the network settings quite easily, put your SIM card back in, and let them restart from scratch. The downside is that you also rest your WIFI and Bluetooth.

I've done it, and can report whether it works tomorrow. But I won't, of course, know whether it would have worked without it.

[Allan]

By way of afterthought, I've noticed in the past that Free tend to update their network settings quite often. If you were away in Thailand, maybe that didn't happen for you, which might explain why it came right after a while.

If you have the latest version of Android, you can reset the network settings quite easily, put your SIM card back in, and let them restart from scratch. The downside is that you also rest your WIFI and Bluetooth.

I've done it, and can report whether it works tomorrow. But I won't, of course, know whether it would have worked without it.

Martyn, when you check can you see if you can get a network other than Yoigo.
I can connect to them near the border but nowhere else You might find that you connect to them in Figueres.

[martyn94]

By way of afterthought, I've noticed in the past that Free tend to update their network settings quite often. If you were away in Thailand, maybe that didn't happen for you, which might explain why it came right after a while.

If you have the latest version of Android, you can reset the network settings quite easily, put your SIM card back in, and let them restart from scratch. The downside is that you also rest your WIFI and Bluetooth.

I've done it, and can report whether it works tomorrow. But I won't, of course, know whether it would have worked without it.

Martyn, when you check can you see if you can get a network other than Yoigo.
I can connect to them near the border but nowhere else You might find that you connect to them in Figueres.

My trip was rained off until yesterday. No reception at all, even Yoigo. I will contact their customer service when I feel strong enough.