Telephone
The main telephone service provider in Spain is Telefonica. To get a telephone installed costs about 150 Euros but It is cheaper to transfer from an existing account, if one exists – normally about 40 Euros. Visit your local Telefonica office to arrange connection and take your passport or residence card, proof of address and a copy of your rental contract or property deed (escritura)..
Installation of a landline when buying a remote property
It is wise to check if you can get a landline installed by Telefonica (the British Telecoms equivalent in Spain). If you are in a built-up area then re-connection/installation usually takes about a week (if you are very lucky). Note that Telefonica will only install/connect up to the first entry point/junction box within the house, and further telephone points are your responsibility. An electrician can easily install further sockets if required. To contact Telefonica, dial 1004 from any landline and ask to speak to an English (ingles) operator or go to the Telefonica website which has an English version where you can apply online.
Be prepared to keep contacting them until you get what you want, they have hundreds of people waiting for telephones and it seems the more you pester, be it by telephone, email or in any of their outlets, the quicker you will get what you want! there are also telefonica shops in larger towns and cities and you can also phone free from phones within the shop itself.
If you do happen to be in an area not so built up it may not be possible for a land line, however don’t despair, even though we struggled to get a radio phone through Telifonica, we were told it could take anything from 6 months to a year, we were able to have installed without having to wait more than a day, a radio phone and internet connection which was carried out by a company called Skynetlink and you really can’t tell the difference, 95% of the time and the service is improving all the time, the calls are in fact cheaper than telefonica quoted us! but you still need to be careful when calling mobiles as this is where the cost of calls can get silly.
Please email me for more information on rural telephone and internet systems and I will put you in touch with somemone who can help.