Central African Republic
Power & telecom standards in Central African Republic
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Central African Republic. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Central African Republic 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 Central African Republic. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Central African Republic.
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.
Central African Republic at a Glance
- Capital
- Bangui
- Phone Code
- +236
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, E
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- CFA Franc
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Central African Republic
The Central African Republic uses 220V/50Hz with Type C and Type E outlets — French colonial-era wiring. The phone jack is RJ-11. Orange Centrafrique, Moov Africa CAR, and Telecel CAR operate the country's telecom infrastructure.
CAR commercial Internet has been substantially constrained by the country's recurring political instability and limited infrastructure. Mobile data is the dominant access method.
The CAR prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest CAR outbound diaspora — concentrated in France, Chad, and Cameroon.
Tempest Telecom served the Central African Republic through dial-up POPs in Bangui. Iridium satphones served the substantial humanitarian customer base across the country's recurring conflicts (2003-2007, 2012-onward), diamond and timber industry operators, and broadcast journalists covering the regional security crises.
Modern CAR has limited mobile-data coverage outside Bangui and the major regional centers.
Tempest's services across Central African Republic, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Central African Republic between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Central African Republic 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 Central African Republic from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Africa
Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Chad · Comoros · Congo · Congo. Democratic Republic of the