Jordan

About connectivity in Jordan

Jordan uses 230V/50Hz with Type B, Type C, Type D, Type F, Type G, and Type J outlets — an unusual six-type mix reflecting layered British Mandate-era, post-independence, and modern installations. The phone jack is RJ-11, with some legacy buildings retaining the Jordanian connector. Jordan Telecom (JT), the post-1995 successor to the state Telecommunications Corporation, was partially acquired by France Télécom / Orange in 2000 with majority Orange ownership from 2006. The mobile market is contested between Orange Jordan, Zain Jordan (the post-2003 rebrand of Fastlink), and Umniah.

Jordan's academic NIC (National Information Center) opened the country's first international Internet connection in the mid-1990s. Commercial dial-up emerged in 1996-1997 with Jordan Telecom's Index service, Cyberia Jordan, NETS, NOL, and a long list of regional providers. Per-minute metered dial-up through JT PSTN was the norm through the late 1990s and early 2000s. ADSL rollout from Jordan Telecom and competitors began in 2003-2004. Mobile data and 4G LTE have driven most of the country's Internet-access growth since the 2010s.

Cardphone deployment in Jordan was modest in scale compared to larger regional peers, with mobile prepaid airtime becoming the dominant prepaid market. The Jordanian prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the substantial Palestinian-Jordanian diaspora calling family across the West Bank, Gaza, the Gulf states, the United States, and Latin America — Jordan hosts one of the world's largest Palestinian populations (an estimated 2+ million Palestinian-origin Jordanians, plus successive waves of Palestinian refugees). The country's very large Iraqi (post-2003 displacement) and Syrian (post-2011 displacement) refugee populations also sustained per-destination card brands sold through neighborhood shops across Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, and the broader Jordan Valley. Jordan Telecom payphone fleets have been progressively decommissioned through the 2010s.

Tempest Telecom served Jordan through dial-up POPs in Amman and Aqaba. Iridium satphones served the desert and Wadi Rum expedition customer base, the Red Sea maritime industry around Aqaba, archaeological and tourism operators around Petra, and humanitarian customers operating in the Iraqi, Palestinian, and Syrian refugee-camp environments.

Modern Jordan has expanding FTTH coverage in Amman and the regional centers with 4G LTE essentially universal and 5G rollout beginning in major cities.

Tempest's services across Jordan, 1997–2012

Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Jordan between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Jordan 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 Jordan from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.

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