Technology Slice Blog

Internet On Mount Everest - 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. Advertisement: Story continues below 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 Chi...