Oman
Power & telecom standards in Oman
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access and broadband ethernet access in Oman. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Oman for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Oman uses 240V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type C, G and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Oman at $0.155/minute. Travelers could connect using any standard modem with an RJ-11 telephone adapter.
WiFi Hotspot Access
Tempest Telecom provided WiFi hotspot access in Oman at $19.95/day for unlimited browsing.
Adapters & Power
A Type G (British 3-pin) adapter is required for travelers from North America, Europe, and most of Asia.
Standard RJ-11 jacks are used. Most international modems will connect without an adapter.
Oman at a Glance
- Capital
- Muscat
- Phone Code
- +968
- Voltage
- 240V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- C, G
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Rial
- Dial-up
- $0.155/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Oman
Oman uses 240V/50Hz with Type C and Type G outlets — a legacy of British colonial wiring standards influenced by the pre-1971 Trucial States era and modern European-standard installations. The phone jack is RJ-11. Omantel (Oman Telecommunications Company, founded 1980), the state-controlled incumbent, holds substantial market position. Ooredoo Oman (the Qatari Ooredoo subsidiary) launched in 2005, and Vodafone Oman entered in 2022, ending the long Omantel-Ooredoo duopoly. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) regulates.
Oman's commercial Internet emerged in 1997 through Omantel as the sole licensed ISP through the early 2000s. ADSL rollout from Omantel began in 2002-2003 and broadband adoption accelerated through the 2010s. Mobile data dominates current Internet access, with 4G LTE essentially universal in populated areas and 5G rollout from 2019 onward.
Omantel introduced cardphone units in the 1990s with chip-card cardphones becoming standard. The Omani prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s and 2010s was substantial per-capita, driven by the country's very large expatriate workforce (approximately 40% of Oman's ~4.6 million population). South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan), Filipino, Egyptian, Sudanese, and broader Sub-Saharan African migrant labor populations sustained per-destination card brands sold through expatriate-grocery networks across Muscat and the regional centers.
Tempest Telecom served Oman through dial-up POPs in Muscat. Iridium satphones served the substantial Omani oil-and-gas sector (operations across the Sultanate's desert interior and the Empty Quarter borderlands), the Indian Ocean maritime industry (the historic Omani maritime trading culture connecting to Zanzibar, East Africa, and South Asia), archaeological-research operators across the country's UNESCO heritage sites, and expedition crews supporting Wahiba Sands and Jebel Akhdar operations.
Modern Oman has expanding FTTH in Muscat and the regional centers with mature 4G LTE / 5G coverage in populated areas. The country's Vision 2040 economic-diversification program drives sustained telecom-infrastructure investment.
Tempest's services across Oman, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Oman between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Oman 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 Oman from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Middle East
Israel · Jordan · Kuwait · Lebanon · Qatar · Saudi Arabia · Syria · Turkey