Cost effective data roaming shouldn’t need to be complicated or expensive, however for the time being where there is a huge differential between roaming data, e.g. £4.25/MB on vodafone, and pay-as-you-go data charges, e.g. €0.06/MB on MÁSmovil. It’s worth spending a little time getting connected locally so you can use your mobile cheaply whilst abroad. Here’s a step-by-step guide one what you need to do:

1. Pick up a MÁSmovil SIM from a phone shop, e.g. at MÁSmovil with your phone number as username and PUK as password
2. Click on “Mis Servicios → Configurador de Terminal”, enter your phone model details, phone number and network and enable “Internet/streaming” and “WAP”. Click the confirm buttons so that MÁSmovil sends you a configuration message by SMS
3. When you get the SMS open it and enter the password “1111″ (or whatever password is told you on the WAP configuration page
4. Click on “Mis Servicios → Datos / Internet” and make sure MÁSinternet is selected. Note that I had to call up customer care on 1473 so that they could enable this since it was greyed out for me. You might have to wait to speak to an English speaking assistant, but they’re good at getting back to you if one is not available when you call

We found it slightly ironic that we needed to use Google latitude to locate a Phone House shop to get connected on 3G – however we were lucky to be able to do some free (but intermittent) Wifi hopping to get there. Several people were recommending Yoigo pay as you go – however they seemed to have sold out when we were looking – possibility because of the popularity.

The painful side effect of switching SIMs is that your old number doesn’t work – although when I’m 3G connected it’s easy for people who know me to connect to me with email, skype (with Fring) etc. Maybe one day the .tel domain will take off and then I can change my phone number as much as I change my IP address.

So if you want to save a few pounds or cut your expenses bill – it’s worth the effort if you’re in Spain for some time and you want to stay connected on your mobile. If you don’t, operators can enjoy the revenue from your travels.