Mount Everest is now the earth’s highest hotspot after a Swedish telecommunications company announced the launch of 3G service in Nepal. The chief executive of Ncell, a subsidiary of TeliaSonera, said the highest video call ever had been made from the Mount Everest base camp Friday. Since Nepal has the beginnings of a 3G network, climbers can go online at the summit of the world’s highest peak and one of the most backward countries on Earth will get a taste of modern technology.
A 3G base station way too high
Satellite phones were used by climbers to communicate with the rest of the world before the 3G at Mount Everest. Ncell is setting up a ton of base stations. In fact, eight 3G stations will be set up. It built the highest one at 17,000 feet near Mount Everest in a village called Gorakshep. Everest 3G will mostly be used for emergency communications and real time weather reports. The locals all have to pay to do anything with calling or the internet to use satellite phones. Now, Ncell has made a way for locals to surf the web, send e-mails and make calls more easily.
Communicating when on Everest
3,000 people have made the trip to Mt. Everest and climbed it. This has all been since 1953 when Sir Edmund Hilary first climbed the mountain. Back then climbers used runners to relay messages from their expeditions to the nearest telegraph office. Carrying the equipment for a satellite phone weighed you down 220 pounds. This had been how much it weighed when the climber living in Nepal, Veikka Gustafsson, first came to the Humalayas, reports TeliaSonera. The China-facing slope of Mount Everest has had partial service provided by China Mobile since 2007, but coverage was voice only.
3G affects Nepal
Telecommunication services is something less than one-third of the people in Nepal have access to. The jagged mountain terrain makes it difficult to build cellular networks and nearly difficult to build land-based networks. Gusaffson said, in reference to the 3G network:
“It’s hard for people in the Western world to even imagine what it means for people living in distant villages in valleys separated by high mountains when they now make their first phone call to relatives or are able to contact a doctor over the phone.”
Right now in Nepal, you will find 3.7 million that work with Ncell, although the 3G service will make that rise. By the end of 2011, TeliaSonera plans on having 90 percent of the population in Nepal covered by investing $100 million.
Further reading
BBC News
bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11651509
Daily Tech
dailytech.com/Worlds Highest AboveWater Peak Everest Gets Internet Access/article20026.htm
PC Magazine
pcmag.com/article2/,2817,2371750,00.asp
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