Djibouti
Power & telecom standards in Djibouti
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Djibouti. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Djibouti 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 Djibouti. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Djibouti.
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.
Djibouti at a Glance
- Capital
- Djibouti
- Phone Code
- +253
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, E
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Franc
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Djibouti
Djibouti uses 220V/50Hz with Type C and Type E outlets. The phone jack is RJ-11. Djibouti Telecom holds a state monopoly on the country's telecom infrastructure.
Djiboutian commercial Internet emerged in 1996. The country's strategic position at the Bab-el-Mandeb strait made it a meaningful undersea-cable landing hub through the 2000s and 2010s (the country hosts landings for AAE-1, EASSy, EIG, SeaMeWe-3, and other cables). Mobile data dominates current Internet access.
The Djiboutian prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest Djiboutian diaspora and the substantial international military presence (French, US, Japanese, Chinese bases all operate in Djibouti).
Tempest Telecom served Djibouti through dial-up POPs in Djibouti City. The Red Sea/Gulf of Aden maritime industry, the substantial international military presence, and humanitarian operators serving the broader Horn of Africa generated Iridium customer demand.
Modern Djibouti has expanding 4G LTE coverage with FTTH concentrated in Djibouti City. The country's undersea-cable-hub position drives sophisticated international bandwidth infrastructure.
Tempest's services across Djibouti, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Djibouti between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Djibouti 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 Djibouti from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Africa
Chad · Comoros · Congo · Congo. Democratic Republic of the · Egypt · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia