Namibia
Power & telecom standards in Namibia
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access and broadband ethernet access in Namibia. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Namibia for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Namibia uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type D, M and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Namibia at $0.255/minute. Travelers could connect using any standard modem with an RJ-11 telephone adapter.
WiFi Hotspot Access
Tempest Telecom provided WiFi hotspot access in Namibia at $19.95/day for unlimited browsing.
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.
Namibia at a Glance
- Capital
- Windhoek
- Phone Code
- +264
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- D, M
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- NAD
- Dial-up
- $0.255/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Namibia
Namibia uses 220V/50Hz with the Type M plug shared with South Africa, the historic former-occupier neighbor whose infrastructure shaped post-1990 independent Namibian standards. The phone jack is RJ-11. Telecom Namibia and MTC (Mobile Telecommunications, the dominant mobile operator) compete with TN Mobile in the country's telecom market.
Namibian commercial Internet emerged in 1995 through Telecom Namibia. Mobile data dominates current Internet access; the country's small population (~2.5 million) and vast geographic territory shape rural infrastructure investment patterns.
The Namibian prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest Namibian outbound diaspora — concentrated in South Africa, Germany (the historic Reichsdeutsche-Namibian community dating to the colonial period), and the United Kingdom.
Tempest Telecom served Namibia through dial-up POPs in Windhoek. Iridium satphones served the substantial diamond-mining sector (the Sperrgebiet operations), the Etosha and Namib desert expedition customer base, the offshore Atlantic fishing industry, and humanitarian operators across the rural Damara and Ovambo communities.
Modern Namibia has expanding 4G LTE coverage in Windhoek and the regional centers with FTTH concentrated in the capital.
Tempest's services across Namibia, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Namibia between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Namibia 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 Namibia from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Africa
Mauritania · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Niger · Nigeria · Reunion · Rwanda