While in Kashmir we still are struggling to work using low speed mobile internet of 2G, China Mobile gearing up install 5G internet mobile internet connectivity on Worlds highest peak Mount Everest advanced base camp.
China Mobile said in a post on Weibo that it completed setting up three 5G base stations at two Everest camps, at 5,300-metre base camp and 5,800-metre transition camp on April 19 and the work at the forward camp will be done by Saturday.
To get 5G to reach such heights, China Mobile sent 150 workers for construction and maintenance purposes. 8-tonnes of network construction and life support equipment was carried to the mountain. The equipment used to deploy 5G was made by Huawei 25 kilometres of optical fibre cable also had to be laid for the project.
“In addition to China Mobile, China Telecom has announced that it built 5G base stations at the Qomolangma base camp, at an altitude of 5,145.3 meters on April 13. The tested upload and download speeds were 700Mbps (megabits per second) and 223Mbps, respectively. China Unicom has also announced in recent days that it has built two 5G base stations on Mount Qomolangma,” Global Times reported. Qomolangma is the Tibetian name of Everest.
With the deployment of 5G at the 8,848 metres tall mountain, mountaineers are expected to be able to communicate better, thus making their expedition safer. It could also prove to be helpful for rescue workers and researchers.
This line now powers three 5G base stations and three 4G ones. Eight tons of networking equipment were hauled up, which also allowed CM to also build two 5G base stations at the Intermediate camp. There’s a team of twelve people providing 24/7 technical support.
The new high-speed connection can be used to broadcast video live from the camps whether it’s day or night.
China Mobile will go even higher – two more 5G base stations are expected to be completed this Friday, they will operate at the Advanced Base Camp at 6,500m (21,300ft).
Here’s a quick history of cell coverage on Mount Everest. The first 3G connection from Base Camp was established in late October of 2010, allowing video calls. A few months later in 2011 the a tweet from Everest was sent out from a Samsung Galaxy S II (which also starred in the world’s highest unboxing video). By the way, this wasn’t the first tweet from the summit, that one came in 2010 via satellite. In 2013, China Mobile flipped the switch on the first 4G tower in Base Camp and demonstrated a live video stream in HD.