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I am having one heck of a time with this.  I cant get a phone number until i get my NIE.  I cant get my NIE until i can get an appointment to get one which requires an email and/or phone number.  My emails are being rejected.  That may have something to do with the vpn but I shut it off and the email still will not go through.  I am mobility challenged at the moment so i cant walk far and do not have a car to go there.  Any pearls of wisdom? I’m all out of ideas

It is painful to get these mobile things sorted in Spain. You can order sim cards online, but still beed to go to store to activate it. Total waste of time.

Another thing is customer service, most of cs agents do not know products nor practises.

From my point of view it is easiest to buy first prepaid Vodafone sim card on kiosk. They activate it with your passport. once you receive your NIE and have bank account with Spanish IBAN ( Revolut has now) then you can change your plan to contract online.

Or, go to shop once you have NIE and bank account.

It is always painful to be in contact with customer service. Spanish, especially in Andalusia do not know anything else except Spanish. Abd in this culture they still love to talk on phone and waste time. Vodafone has cs in English on the app - yiu always need to wait to get Englaih speaking agent online.

Movistar and Orange, I tried them as well. They only wasted my time. If you have good mobile plan with reasonable roaming costs from your home country, keep it. it is much easier.

@Seaandsun4me   Hello, welcome.  We "resolved" our issues quickly and in steps.  We went to the office in our area that had physical sim cards that fit our iPhones.  It was a prepaid plan of E 19 a month.  It is a local number from Vodaphone.  Movilstar nor Orange had these plans.  We had to show only our passport for these.   Now that I have an NIE I can have the other plans available to residents.  I may keep the number and probably go with Movilstar because I believe they have more coverage.     Spending time at the physical store was most valuable.   I hope this helps.   Pia

@Jukka-Pekka Spets I concur.  My experience was easier because I speak Spanish.  Even still it was not a walk in the park.   

Unless you need a Spanish phone number, just get a prepaid sim from Vodafone Ireland.  I've had one for 10 years, roaming is free in all of Europe and customer service is in English.

When I arrived in Spain, I contracted with Avatel to provide home fiber internet, HDTV stations, and cellular service to my condo/apartment (which I own).  Total cost is 30 euros/month for everything, including the cellular number and cellular data plan.

I have been using Orange for about 5 years. I'm only in Spain about half the time. I signed up at an Orange shop in Bilbao with a US passport, although I am a dual national (with a Spanish passport).

They have numerous low cost prepaid plans. I use "Go Walk" at 10€/month when I'm in Spain or the EU. I switch to "Llama" when I'm back in the USA, which is FREE as long as you don't make any calls/texts. Llama isn't listed - you have to call and ask for it. I use a hard SIM, which makes switching very easy in my Pixel/Android phone.

Although I'm fluent in Spanish, I use their English customer service line:

Help line english: +34 695 911 900

I presume that other phone companies have similar plans. But Orange's coverage and customer service has been superb.

I understand that home internet and TV may be an issue for some, but not for me.

Here is a website you're looking for. Very detailed informations about mobile operators, their coverage and plans in Spain (and all other countries).  prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Spain