Afghanistan
Power & telecom standards in Afghanistan
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Afghanistan. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Afghanistan uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, F and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Afghanistan. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Afghanistan.
Adapters & Power
Travelers from North America will need a power plug adapter. European Type C/F adapters are widely compatible.
Standard RJ-11 jacks are used. Most international modems will connect without an adapter.
Afghanistan at a Glance
- Capital
- Kabul
- Phone Code
- +93
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, F
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Afghani
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Afghanistan
Afghanistan uses 220V/50Hz with Type C and Type F outlets. The phone jack is RJ-11. The Afghan telecom sector was rebuilt almost from scratch following the 2001 US-led intervention that toppled the Taliban regime. The post-2001 mobile market was contested by Roshan, MTN Afghanistan, Etisalat Afghanistan, and the state operator Salaam. The August 2021 Taliban return to power has substantially affected international operator participation.
Pre-2001 Afghan Internet access was minimal under the Taliban's formal Internet ban from 1996 to 2001. Post-2001 commercial Internet rolled out rapidly through the 2000s, with mobile data driving the bulk of connectivity growth. The 2021 Taliban return imposed renewed content restrictions and operational constraints.
Cardphone deployment was limited. The Afghan prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s and 2010s served the very large Afghan outbound diaspora — concentrated in Pakistan, Iran, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the broader European refugee-resettlement countries.
Tempest Telecom served Afghanistan through dial-up POPs in Kabul. The country generated enormous Iridium and Thuraya and BGAN customer demand from 2001 onward across the international military presence, broadcast journalists (the Kabul press corps), defense contractors, NGO operators, and the reconstruction logistics customer base — all settled through the unified prepaid account architecture Tempest had built in 1997.
Modern Afghanistan has expanding mobile-data coverage in Kabul and major provincial centers; the post-2021 political environment continues to constrain investment.
Tempest's services across Afghanistan, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Afghanistan between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Afghanistan drew from the same balance for pre-paid international voice calling, RADIUS-authenticated dial-up Internet roaming, metered Wi-Fi hotspot access, Iridium and Thuraya satellite voice, and Inmarsat BGAN and Thuraya data terminals. An attempted kiosk-payment federation (PATN, 1998) extended the same architecture to public Internet terminals but failed to reach scale.
Both Iridium (global LEO) and Thuraya (regional GEO) satellite voice were available in Afghanistan from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Asia
Armenia · Azerbaijan · Bangladesh · Bhutan · Brunei · Burma · Cambodia · China