When you’re moving from the states to Portugal, one of the first things that you’ll need is the internet. Usually, in order to get your D7 visa and official approval to move over, you have to have an established lease agreement.
You can either rent a fully furnished place where the internet’s already hooked up and everything’s ready for you. There you should expect to pay quite a bit more. Alternatively, you can move into an unfurnished unit, sometimes even lacking kitchen appliances, and you’ll have to set up your own utilities.
Establishing gas and electricity is a whole other post, but for now, we’re talking about setting up your internet service. We’ve already talked about setting up your phone service and how to maintain stateside connections.
Portugal Internet Filled the Gaps
We’ve mentioned Portugal internet in past blogs and we’re going to mention it one more time because it made such a difference in our relocation. When we moved from the states, there was a bit of a gap before we could move into our place and set up utilities and phone service.
The primary reason for this is because we knew that we were going to bundle our internet and phone service together. As a stopgap measure, we rented a MiFi device from PortugalInternet.com and we can’t say enough good things about them. We were able to pick it up at the airport in Lisbon when we landed.
The unit was charged and immediately began working for us. We were able to make phone calls, conduct Google Maps searches, and all of the things that you would normally need when you’re out and about. So, for the two weeks before we actually had wifi fully set up in our new place, Portugal Internet was able to fill in the gaps.
Comparing Speeds with Comcast
Speeds were FAST! This little, portable wifi device was just as fast as our normal internet service in the states, which was supposed to be high speed. I will throw Comcast under the bus because we’d used Comcast the whole time we were in Portland. Service and speeds were spotty at best. With Comcast, we paid a lot of money to have 30 MBPS down.
At one point we paid for 100 MBPS down and never got it. So yeah, Comcast’s “high-speed internet” service was less impressive than a portable wifi device in Portugal.
Internet in Portugal, A Selection of Providers
When we were researching internet service in Portugal, we heard that you could get fiber, though we kind of didn’t expect to get that lucky. We initially wanted service from NOS because we did a bunch of internet research and we’d narrowed down potential service providers to NOS, Vodafone, and MEO.
At the time NOS had a special offer to get a free TV when you set up service. Unfortunately, when we spoke with the agent, our address had never been serviced by NOS, so we’d have to get set-up with satellite. Obviously, this was less than ideal and basically a deal breaker.
That customer service representative told us that MEO was the previous carrier for the home, so we went to MEO and set up service with them. The bundle, while obviously lacking a free TV, was still pretty decent. It included internet, cable TV with several movie and sports channels, cell service for two phones, and even a phone landline that we will never use, for under 80 euros per month.
Blazing Fast Internet
For all of that, we are paying LESS than we paid in the states just for slow internet. Through a bit of a miscommunication, we got the fiber we wanted, but “only” at 500 MBPS down and not the 1G of our dreams.
That said, we were very happy because never-did-we-ever have 500 MBPS down in the states.
How to Initiate Service
It was relatively easy to sign up. We just had to give them the address of our rental, our lease agreement, and present our passport. The lease agreement is the most important factor in getting signed up. They want you to prove that you have the right to set up service at the requested address.
Our rental address is rather odd because it’s on a private road called, “Rua Particular” (literally, private road). Our house number is not actually a number. It’s letters, so that really threw them for a loop. But we were able to work through it. They found our address and confirmed that we had MEO service available — with fiber, no less!
The tech, who came to turn on our cable service came within a day or two. He arrived, politely waited to be invited into our home as is standard with all service providers, and asked where the router and TV would be located. We indicated the living room area. He basically did everything he needed to without speaking with us. He tested it and less than 30 minutes later, he let us know it was all set. Maylene jumped on to make sure it worked and to test speeds.
The down speed was OVER 500 MBPS! In the states we NEVER got faster speeds than what had been promised. Outstanding! We couldn’t be happier!
Getting Help from MEO
It’s been over a year and we’ve only had a few glitches with the service that weren’t even MEO’s fault. These were definitely environmental. When we did have trouble due to a downed tree in the abandoned house next door that broke the line, they fixed it almost right away.
Unfortunately, our neighbors accidentally broke it again a week later during tree cleanup. But, MEO came right back out and fixed it at no charge. We called their English phone number at +351 800 209 986 and it was immediately, professionally, and kindly addressed.
Most service inquiries or queries with utility providers are handled via phone. There are very few times you can use email to get anything done. But, if you buckle up and use the English service line, you’ll do just fine. The people we’ve spoken with have been very nice and helpful.
So that’s how you set up your internet service. We’ve been very lucky overall with MEO. Like anything else, your mileage may vary.
Great post! My experience with phone and internet companies in Barcelona was the opposite, so your positive experience is reassuring!