Kiribati
Power & telecom standards in Kiribati
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Kiribati. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Kiribati uses 240V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type I and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Kiribati. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Kiribati.
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.
Kiribati at a Glance
- Capital
- Tarawa
- Phone Code
- +686
- Voltage
- 240V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- I
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- AUD
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Kiribati
Kiribati uses 240V/50Hz with the Type I plug shared with Australia and New Zealand. The phone jack is RJ-11. ATH Kiribati and Vodafone Kiribati operate the country's telecom infrastructure.
I-Kiribati commercial Internet emerged in the late 1990s. The country's extreme geographic dispersion (population ~120,000 spread across 33 atolls and reef islands distributed over 3.5 million km² of ocean) shapes infrastructure development around satellite and inter-island microwave links.
The I-Kiribati prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest outbound diaspora — concentrated in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Tempest Telecom served Kiribati through Iridium satphones. The substantial Pacific tuna-fishing industry, climate-research operators (Kiribati is one of the most low-lying countries facing existential sea-level-rise threats), and modest tourism operators sustained satellite demand.
Modern Kiribati has expanding mobile coverage in populated atolls; satellite continues to play a substantial role for inter-island connectivity.
Tempest's services across Kiribati, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Kiribati between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Kiribati 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 Kiribati from approximately 2001 (post-bankruptcy relaunch). Thuraya coverage did not extend to Kiribati; Inmarsat BGAN data terminals filled the broadband gap from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Oceania
Cook Islands · Fiji · French Polynesia · Guam · Marshall Islands · Micronesia · Nauru · New Caledonia