Wired

The firm we buy our Internet services from, Movistar, is the most expensive broadband provider in the whole of the European Union.

Movistar charge over 70% more for midspeed broadband access (2mgb to 10mgb) than the average price of the other old state monopolies across the European Union. The average is 34€ and Movistar charge 58€

Even the cheapest broadband access in Spain comes out nearly 11% more expensive than the median of the other European offers. So your average European pays 29€ whilst the most savvy Spaniard pays 32€. Goodness knows how much the difference is between the best European offer and what we pay.

Spaniards get overcharged even more on the over 10mgb lines where the cheapest Spanish is 35€ against 30€ European average - over 16% difference.

Apparently one of the big variations is that most of the headline prices on the various Spanish offers do not include the line rental as part of the package.

Just in case you think we are particularly stupid in paying over the odds we don't have much of a choice. Until very recently the only operator who would provide our house with broadband was Movistar. Nobody wants to provide infrastructure to we country bumpkins.