Guinea-Bissau
Power & telecom standards in Guinea-Bissau
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Guinea-Bissau. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Guinea-Bissau uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Guinea-Bissau. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Guinea-Bissau.
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.
Guinea-Bissau at a Glance
- Capital
- Bissau
- Phone Code
- +245
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- CFA Franc
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau uses 220V/50Hz with Type C outlets — Portuguese colonial-era wiring. The phone jack is RJ-11. Orange Bissau and MTN compete in the country's small telecom market.
Bissau-Guinean commercial Internet emerged in the late 1990s. The country's recurring political instability has constrained sustained infrastructure investment.
The Bissau-Guinean prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest diaspora — concentrated in Portugal (the colonial-era community), Senegal, and France.
Tempest Telecom served Guinea-Bissau through limited dial-up arrangements. Iridium satphones served the cashew-export agricultural sector and humanitarian operators.
Modern Guinea-Bissau has expanding mobile-data coverage centered on Bissau.
Tempest's services across Guinea-Bissau, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Guinea-Bissau between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Guinea-Bissau 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 Guinea-Bissau from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Africa
Gabon · Gambia · Ghana · Guinea · Ivory Coast · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia