China Mobile connects top of the world China Mobile has asked Huawei, wannabe owners of 3Com, to install a GSM base station 6,500 metres up Mount Everest. This will create a cell which will cover the main route to the summit. It won't be the first time a call has been made from the summit - back in May a base station was established with line of sight to the peak, …
if Everest is too high for helicopters, black or otherwise, how do our Chinese friends intend to get the antenna up there? if its anything like the mobile mast that got put up at the end of our road, a slack handful of climbers aren't going to get it up there.
perhaps they could build some sort of giant catapult at the foot of the mountain, or maybe drop it from space using their new Chinese space podules? or form a human chain of Tibetan monks to hoist it to the top, which has the added advantage of freezing them to death and saving the Chinese authorities having to execute them later?
Since it tends to be a bit nippy up there I wonder how long the talktime will be before recharging is required. Which brings up the question of where you plug your recharger in when you are in a tent.
Satellite phones have been used up to now and of course radios for communication between climbers. There isn't much mileage in relying on the phone to call for help as there are a number of instances of transmissions simply being used as FINAL goodbyes. International rescue don't do rescues off Everest (Chumalunga), FAB.
As somewhat of a high altitude mountaineer, the thought of this turns my stomach.
Everest is already the domain of wannabes or those with more money then sense who have to get hauled up the mountain by Sherpa's.
Why don't they just build a Starbuck's on top, an esculator on the hillary step and get it over and done with.
Mallory and Irving must be "spinning in the grave" wherever they lie.
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