[LINK] comms on Mt Everest

[Jan Whitaker]

Internet reaches Everest summit

October 29, 2010 - 7:53PM
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Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will 
now be able to make video calls and surf the internet on their mobile 
phones, a Nepalese telecom group claims.

Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, said on 
Thursday it had set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base 
station at an altitude of 5200 metres near Gorakshep village in the 
Everest region.

"Today we made the (world's) highest video call from Mount Everest 
base camp successfully. The coverage of the network will reach up to 
the peak of the Everest," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen told 
reporters in Kathmandu.

The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and 
trekkers who visit the world's highest mountain every year.

Climbers who reached its 8848-metre peak previously depended on 
expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only 
network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain.

"This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high 
speed internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication 
services from the world's tallest mountain," said Lars Nyberg, chief 
executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80 per cent of Ncell.

The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the 
internet, said the company, which also claims the world's lowest 3G 
base at 1400 metres below sea level in a mine in Europe.

Despite the installation in Everest, telecom services cover less than 
one-third of the 28 million people of Nepal, one of the poorest 
countries in the world.

TeliaSonera said it planned to invest $US100 million ($A102.44 
million) in the next year to ensure that mobile coverage increases to 
more than 90 per cent of the Himalayan nation's population.

The 3G network on Everest puts TeliaSonera ahead of state-controlled 
Nepal Telecom, Indian-owned United Telecom and China Mobile.

Around 3000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund 
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak in 1953.

AFP

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/internet-reaches-everest-summit-20101029-177bf.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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