Burundi
Power & telecom standards in Burundi
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Burundi. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Burundi uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, E and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Burundi. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Burundi.
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.
Burundi at a Glance
- Capital
- Bujumbura
- Phone Code
- +257
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, E
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Franc
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Burundi
Burundi uses 220V/50Hz with Type C and Type E outlets — Belgian colonial-era wiring (Burundi was part of the Belgian-administered Ruanda-Urundi trust territory). The phone jack is RJ-11. ONATEL Burundi holds substantial fixed-line market position; Lumitel (Viettel-owned), Econet Leo, and Smart compete in mobile.
Burundian commercial Internet emerged in the late 1990s. The 1993-2005 Burundian Civil War constrained early infrastructure investment. Mobile data dominates current Internet access.
The Burundian prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the substantial post-conflict diaspora — concentrated in Belgium (the colonial-era diaspora), the United States, Canada, and across the Great Lakes refugee circuit.
Tempest Telecom served Burundi through dial-up POPs in Bujumbura. The humanitarian customer base across the recurring Great Lakes refugee crises and broadcast journalists sustained Iridium demand.
Modern Burundi has expanding 4G LTE coverage with FTTH concentrated in Bujumbura.
Tempest's services across Burundi, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Burundi between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Burundi 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 Burundi from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Africa
Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad