Moving to Fuerteventura

If you’re moving to Fuerteventura, and will need a telephone line… be ready for problems whether renting or buying a property!

If like us you are in a situation where a phone line and ADSL to run your business is vital, it’s pretty unlikely you can get a line without having to deal with Telefonica. Either that, or you will need to purchase an internet dongle to accompany your mobile phone.

Things to be aware of:

• Many rural areas, and new developments are not yet registered on the system so, you can not easily get a line – certainly not for the foreseeable future
• There is a limited supply of numbers so in some areas you may join a waiting list
• Although their sales line (for what it’s worth) can cater for English speakers (sometimes, if they got out of the right side of bed), they do not offer ANY technical support in English
• Orders can conveniently  ‘dissapear’ from the system
• They struggle with reliability generally….

We were lucky in the first place we moved into -  we got ADSL in just over two weeks from placing our order, but many don’t – some people wait months, or even years without success. Indeed, in the place we have just bought – we are still waiting after a number of months, and do not expect this to change any time soon. You’ll probably find very few residents on the island who have good stories to tell about Telfonica!

Good luck!