Maldives
Power & telecom standards in Maldives
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Maldives. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Maldives uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type A, C, D, G, J, K, L and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Maldives. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Maldives.
Adapters & Power
North American (Type A/B) plugs are compatible. An adapter may not be needed for US travelers.
Standard RJ-11 jacks are used. Most international modems will connect without an adapter.
Maldives at a Glance
- Capital
- Male
- Phone Code
- +960
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- A, C, D, G, J, K, L
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Rufiyaa
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Maldives
Maldives uses 230V/50Hz with Type D, Type G, and Type M outlets — a mix reflecting British colonial-era wiring and modern installations. The phone jack is RJ-11. Dhiraagu (Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun, founded 1988) and Ooredoo Maldives operate the country's telecom infrastructure across the 1,200-island atoll nation.
Maldivian commercial Internet emerged in 1996 through Dhiraagu. The country's extreme geographic dispersion (population spread across ~200 inhabited islands) shaped infrastructure development around undersea cable and inter-atoll microwave links.
The Maldivian prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the substantial expatriate workforce (Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Indian, Filipino workers in the tourism and construction sectors) and the modest Maldivian outbound diaspora.
Tempest Telecom served Maldives through dial-up POPs in Malé. Iridium satphones served the substantial luxury-tourism industry (the country's resort-island model), the Indian Ocean maritime industry, and dive-tourism operators.
Modern Maldives has expanding FTTH in Malé and the major resort islands with mature 4G LTE coverage.
Tempest's services across Maldives, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Maldives between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Maldives 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 Maldives from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Asia
Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Macau · Malaysia · Mongolia · Nepal · Pakistan · Philippines