Singapore
Power & telecom standards in Singapore
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access, toll-free dial-up access and broadband ethernet access in Singapore. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Singapore for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Singapore uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, G, M and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Singapore at $0.155/minute. Toll-free numbers were also available at $.30/minute. Travelers could connect using any standard modem with an RJ-11 telephone adapter.
WiFi Hotspot Access
Tempest Telecom provided WiFi hotspot access in Singapore at $19.95/day for unlimited browsing.
Adapters & Power
A Type G (British 3-pin) adapter is required for travelers from North America, Europe, and most of Asia.
Standard RJ-11 jacks are used. Most international modems will connect without an adapter.
Singapore at a Glance
- Capital
- Singapore
- Phone Code
- +65
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, G, M
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- SGD
- Dial-up
- $0.155/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Singapore
Singapore uses 230V/50Hz with the British Type G outlet (a legacy of British colonial wiring standards) plus Type C and Type M in some legacy installations. The phone jack is RJ-11. Singapore Telecom (Singtel), tracing its lineage to the 1879 colonial-era Posts and Telegraph Department, held a monopoly until 1992, was partially privatized in 1993, and now competes with StarHub (founded 2000, the country's second carrier) and M1 (founded 1997). The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) regulates.
Singapore's academic TECHNET opened the country's first international Internet connection in 1990. SingNet (Singtel's commercial ISP) launched in July 1994, making it one of the earliest commercial dial-up ISPs in Southeast Asia. Pacific Internet (founded 1995, later acquired by Connect Holdings) and CyberWay (later folded into Pacific Internet) competed through the late 1990s. The Singapore ONE national broadband initiative, launched in 1997 by the government's National Computer Board, was one of the world's earliest national broadband strategies and laid the foundation for Singapore's subsequent FTTH leadership. ADSL was effectively universal across the city-state by the early 2000s, and consumer dial-up faded faster than anywhere else in Asia.
Singtel introduced its first cardphones in the late 1980s, with chip-card cardphones following in the 1990s. The Singapore prepaid international calling-card market through the 1990s and 2000s was substantial in both directions: outbound for the country's permanent-resident and citizen communities calling Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, the Philippines, the UK, Australia, and the US, and inbound for the very large migrant-worker populations from Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, and Myanmar calling home. Card brands competed through the dense neighborhood-shop and provision-store networks across HDB estates. Singtel payphones across the MRT stations, hawker centers, and HDB blocks were progressively decommissioned through the 2010s as mobile penetration approached 150% of population.
Tempest Telecom served Singapore as a regional dial-up gateway — POP-routed access from Changi Airport, the Central Business District, and the Sentosa hotel cluster was reliable for transient business travelers. Singapore was historically a regional satphone distribution hub for Tempest, with Iridium 9505A and BGAN terminals shipped through Singapore for Southeast Asian maritime customers (Malacca Strait shipping, Indonesian archipelago operators) and for ASEAN expedition work.
Modern Singapore has the world's densest fiber-to-the-home deployment — gigabit FTTH is essentially universal across the city-state. 5G coverage is mature and 6G research is underway through the IMDA.
Nearby countries in Asia
Mongolia · Nepal · Pakistan · Philippines · Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Tajikistan · Thailand