Cape Verde
Power & telecom standards in Cape Verde
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access and broadband ethernet access in Cape Verde. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Cape Verde for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Cape Verde uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, F and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Cape Verde at $0.255/minute. Travelers could connect using any standard modem with an RJ-11 telephone adapter.
WiFi Hotspot Access
Tempest Telecom provided WiFi hotspot access in Cape Verde at $19.95/day for unlimited browsing.
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.
Cape Verde at a Glance
- Capital
- Praia
- Phone Code
- +238
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, F
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Escudo
- Dial-up
- $0.255/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Cape Verde
Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) uses 230V/50Hz with Type C and Type F outlets — reflecting Portuguese colonial-era and modern European-standard installations. The phone jack is RJ-11. CV Telecom (the post-1995 successor to the colonial-era postal-telecom operations) and Unitel T+ operate the country's telecom infrastructure across the 10-island Atlantic archipelago.
Cape Verdean commercial Internet emerged in 1996 through CV Telecom. The country's extreme geographic dispersion (population ~600,000 across 10 inhabited islands roughly 600 km off the West African coast) shaped infrastructure development around undersea cable and inter-island microwave links.
The Cape Verdean prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s and 2010s served the very large Cape Verdean diaspora — concentrated in the United States (particularly the New Bedford / Boston / Rhode Island area, one of the largest Cape Verdean-American communities), Portugal (the colonial-era diaspora), the Netherlands, France, and Senegal. Cape Verde has historically had more Cape Verdean-origin people abroad than resident population.
Tempest Telecom served Cape Verde through dial-up POPs in Praia. The Atlantic maritime industry (the historic Cape Verdean fishing fleet and the country's position along the West African shipping lanes) and the modest tourism sector sustained Iridium customer demand.
Modern Cape Verde has expanding 4G LTE coverage with FTTH concentrated in Praia and Mindelo. The country has actively positioned itself as an Atlantic data-cable landing hub.
Tempest's services across Cape Verde, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Cape Verde between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Cape Verde drew from the same balance for pre-paid international voice calling, RADIUS-authenticated dial-up Internet roaming, metered Wi-Fi hotspot access, Iridium satellite voice, and Inmarsat BGAN data terminals. An attempted kiosk-payment federation (PATN, 1998) extended the same architecture to public Internet terminals but failed to reach scale.
Iridium satellite voice was available in Cape Verde from approximately 2001 (post-bankruptcy relaunch). Thuraya coverage did not extend to Cape Verde; Inmarsat BGAN data terminals filled the broadband gap from late 2005.
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