TeliaSonera subsidiary Ncell has just completed installation of a 3G base station at 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) that will reach the 8,848-meter peak of Mount Everest. Mind you, we’ve already seen a cellphone call made from the world’s highest peak using a temporary base station in a Motorola publicity stunt. This time, however, it’s permanent and faster allowing climbers to surf the internet or make 3G video calls. Why would Ncell want to build a base station in such a sparsely populated area? Because it is there.
I’ve finally run out of excuses for not climbing Everest. Oh, Wait…
It’ll be like the airport. You’ll have to login with your Facebook account every ten minutes and leave a javascript timer window running.
Geocities is long in the grave but we still have have crappy javascript clocks.
This is cool and will allow us to follow climbers better.
The main downside is that it may bring more people on the mountain who shouldn’t be there. There are way too many of those already.
The Nepali government should not allow anyone to summit the mountain until they have done a previous expedition to take trash off the mountain.
But they won’t — Everest is a cash cow for Nepal.
I’ve spent about eight weeks in Nepal and highly recommend it — especially the hiking. Just don’t be an ugly tourist.