Samoa
Power & telecom standards in Samoa
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Samoa. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Samoa uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type I and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Samoa. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Samoa.
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.
Samoa at a Glance
- Capital
- Apia
- Phone Code
- +685
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- I
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Tala
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Samoa
Samoa uses 230V/50Hz with the Australian/NZ-style Type I outlet. The phone jack is RJ-11. The country code is +685. BlueSky Samoa and Digicel Samoa operate the principal mobile networks; the currency is the Samoan Tala. Samoa changed its time zone in 2011 (skipping a day to align with Australia and New Zealand) and drives on the left side of the road (a 2009 change from right-side driving).
Samoa's commercial Internet emerged in the 1990s through SamoaTel (now BlueSky Samoa); the 2009 Samoa-American Samoa submarine cable substantially improved international bandwidth economics, with further cable additions in subsequent years. Tourism, the substantial Samoan diaspora in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, and traditional kinship-based remittance flows shape commercial Internet demand.
Tempest Telecom served Samoa primarily through Iridium satellite phones for the Pacific maritime industry transiting the region, the small business-traveler base, and the climate-research customer category (Samoa hosts several climate-monitoring stations relevant to South Pacific weather systems).
Modern Samoa has 4G LTE coverage on the main islands of Upolu and Savai'i and expanding fiber connectivity.
Tempest's services across Samoa, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Samoa between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Samoa 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 Samoa from approximately 2001 (post-bankruptcy relaunch). Thuraya coverage did not extend to Samoa; Inmarsat BGAN data terminals filled the broadband gap from late 2005.