Swaziland
Power & telecom standards in Swaziland
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access and broadband ethernet access in Swaziland. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Swaziland for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Swaziland uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type M and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Swaziland 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 Swaziland 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.
Swaziland at a Glance
- Capital
- Mbabane
- Phone Code
- +268
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- M
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Lilangeni
- Dial-up
- $0.255/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Swaziland
Eswatini (formerly Swaziland; renamed 2018) uses 230V/50Hz with the South African Type M plug — reflecting the country's position as a small landlocked enclave bordering South Africa and Mozambique. The phone jack is RJ-11. Eswatini Telecom (state) and MTN Eswatini operate the country's telecom infrastructure.
Eswatini commercial Internet emerged in the late 1990s. The country's integration with South African telecom infrastructure shapes most connectivity patterns. Mobile data dominates current access.
The Eswatini prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the modest outbound diaspora — concentrated in South Africa (the historic mine-worker and broader labor-migration destination) and the United Kingdom.
Tempest Telecom served Eswatini through dial-up POPs in Mbabane. The sugar-and-textile sectors and the modest mountain-tourism operators sustained Iridium demand.
Modern Eswatini has expanding 4G LTE coverage with FTTH concentrated in Mbabane and Manzini.
Tempest's services across Swaziland, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Swaziland between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Swaziland 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 Swaziland from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
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