Tuvalu
Power & telecom standards in Tuvalu
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered satellite-only service in Tuvalu. Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access was available for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Tuvalu uses 220V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type I and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up access was not available in Tuvalu. Satellite Internet was the recommended alternative.
WiFi Hotspot Access
WiFi hotspot access was not available through Tempest in Tuvalu.
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.
Tuvalu at a Glance
- Capital
- Funafuti
- Phone Code
- +688
- Voltage
- 220V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- I
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- AUD
- Dial-up
- N/A
- WiFi
- N/A
About connectivity in Tuvalu
Tuvalu uses 220V/50Hz with the Australian-style Type I outlet. The phone jack is RJ-11. The country code is +688. The Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation operates the principal network across the country's nine atolls; the currency is the Australian Dollar (with parallel Tuvaluan coinage).
Tuvalu is the world's fourth-smallest country by area (26 km2) and one of the smallest by population (~11,000). The country's economy is famously underpinned in part by licensing revenue from its country-code top-level domain «.tv», which has been monetized as a premium domain for television and streaming services since the late 1990s. Commercial Internet emerged in the 2000s through satellite-only links; the 2022 Tuvalu submarine cable substantially improved bandwidth.
Tempest Telecom served Tuvalu primarily through Iridium satellite phones for the Pacific maritime industry and the climate-research customer base (Tuvalu hosts climate-monitoring stations directly relevant to sea-level-rise research given the country's low elevation).
Modern Tuvalu has improved terrestrial broadband following the 2022 submarine cable arrival.
Tempest's services across Tuvalu, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Tuvalu between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Tuvalu 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 Tuvalu from approximately 2001 (post-bankruptcy relaunch). Thuraya coverage did not extend to Tuvalu; Inmarsat BGAN data terminals filled the broadband gap from late 2005.