Greenland
Power & telecom standards in Greenland
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Greenland. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Greenland uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, E, F, K and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Greenland. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Greenland.
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.
Greenland at a Glance
- Capital
- Nuuk
- Phone Code
- +299
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, E, F, K
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- DKK
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Greenland
Greenland uses 230V/50Hz with the Danish Type K outlet plus Type C and Type F — reflecting the territory's status as an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. The phone jack is RJ-11. Tusass (formerly TELE Greenland) is the sole telecom operator across the world's largest island.
Greenlandic commercial Internet emerged in the late 1990s through TELE Greenland. The territory's extreme geographic dispersion (population ~56,000 across 2.16 million km²) and Arctic environment have shaped infrastructure development around satellite, undersea cable, and microwave-link technologies.
The Greenlandic prepaid international calling-card market was modest. The Greenlandic-Inuit community has substantial connection to Denmark and the broader circumpolar Inuit cultural network.
Tempest Telecom served Greenland through Iridium and BGAN terminals — the territory was one of the more concentrated Iridium customer bases globally per capita given the limited terrestrial infrastructure across most of the island. Research stations (including the Summit Station ice-core research operations), the Thule Air Base / Pituffik defense operations, and the fishing-fleet maritime industry all sustained substantial satellite-communications demand.
Modern Greenland has expanding 4G LTE coverage in Nuuk and the larger settlements; FTTH and the 2026 Tusass-led undersea fiber-cable expansion are progressively replacing satellite as the primary international bandwidth source.
Tempest's services across Greenland, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Greenland between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Greenland 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 Greenland from approximately 2001 (post-bankruptcy relaunch). Thuraya coverage did not extend to Greenland; Inmarsat BGAN data terminals filled the broadband gap from late 2005.
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