Last February, my internet died at 13:45. Not slow—dead. Twenty minutes into a quarterly review with a board that meets four times a year and does not reschedule.

I switched to my phone's hotspot. Thirty seconds of buffering while eight people stared at a frozen video. The CEO asked when I rejoined if I could be in a more stable location in the future. I sat seeing the competence I had spent two years building drain through a mobile connection that could not hold 720p.

The call remained polite, we moved on, but I had to spend the rest of the call rebuilding credibility I should never have risked.

That was the week I stopped assuming one work base was enough.

On the Costa, your call quality is not a technical problem. It is a reputational one. Here is the system that stops you from gambling.

You need three places where calls work. Not "nice to have"—need.

Base one: Home (07:00-10:00 calls)
This is where you take early London or New York. The router is plugged into the wall, not hidden behind a metal cabinet. Cable connection if your building allows it. Door that closes. Background you are not embarrassed by.

Test it under load: get everyone in the house streaming at 11:00 on a Tuesday, then run a video call to a friend. If it holds, you can trust it. If it chokes, this is not where you run board meetings.

If you own property: This also applies to contractor calls and bank meetings. The lending officer does not need to see your renovation chaos. Pick the room with decent acoustics and book contractors for mornings when Wi-Fi is stable.

Base two: Primary cowork (11:00-16:00)
Last week's issue already told you to pick one coworking space and test the fiber at 11:00, not 08:00. Today, the bar is higher.

You want:

Run one rehearsal. Book the room. Join a fake call. Walk the backup spots. Find out who fixes things when they break.

In Marbella: Centro House (€175/month) or WeCowork (€159/month hot desk) both have bookable rooms. In Fuengirola: Workplays (€99/month). Estepona: We’re still researching and seeing fewer options. Test before committing, but if you find one, please share it with us.

If both adults work remotely: Rotate the bases. One takes home Monday and Wednesday, the other takes Tuesday and Thursday. Friday is cowork for whoever has the sensitive call. Saves fighting over the one quiet room at 13:30.

Base three: The backup (when everything else breaks)
Hotel lobby or second cowork on a different street grid. Quiet enough to talk at normal volume. Different fiber line than your primary base. Reachable in fifteen minutes, even when the autovía — motorway — detours are live.

This is not where you go to "feel local." This is where you go when the neighbor drills through your ceiling ten minutes before a quarterly.

This ties back to Monday's ops intel. There is no point booking the perfect meeting room on Calle Ricardo Soriano if the only road into town is dug up and the rain has turned the car park into a lake.

Check road closures before booking. Check parking before confirming. Check backup routes before the call starts.

Competence on the Costa is not about having perfect infrastructure. It is about having tested alternatives when the first option fails.

Málaga is adding 600,000 seats this winter—10.4 million total across 217 routes. That is good if you want people to visit. Bad if you keep pretending Mondays at 09:00 are still empty.

For remote professionals: Fly your VP in on Tuesday morning, meet on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, fly out on Thursday. Avoid Monday arrivals and Friday departures. Stop asking people to do red-eyes because you live near a beach.

For property owners hosting buyers or contractors: Same pattern. Tuesday arrivals mean they are fresh for Wednesday site visits. Thursday departures mean you are not rushing them through decisions because their flight boards in two hours.

For everyone arriving: Lock a driver for airport days. Give them the week's road closure notes. Have them text when they hit Las Chapas, not when they are already late. €60-80 each way. Worth it when the alternative is missing a €500,000 contract signature because you got stuck behind Metro works at 14:30.

Design meetings around delays. Put heavy-thinking sessions in the afternoon, not right after someone lands. Build Zoom backup links into every in-person invite. Do not schedule your biggest calls within an hour of airport runs—you will get caught.

¿Tiene sala tranquila para reunión? — Do you have a quiet room for a meeting?

¿La fibra funciona bien a mediodía? — Does the fiber work well at midday?

Use the first when booking a coworking room or restaurant space for client meetings. Use the second when testing a new work base—you want confirmation, not guesswork.

Reply CIRCUIT with your town for a one-page worksheet mapping your three bases, backup contacts, and tested routes.

Reply WIFI for coworking and hotel-lobby options by town, with peak-hour performance notes.

Quiet competence is not an accident here. It is what happens when you treat your work based on the way you already treat your calendar.

Onwards — A. and the Waypoint Sur team