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Mount Everest now has a permanent 3G connection to the summit
- pchristensen 16y agoWhy is everyone so concerned about this? This is a a no-brainer because: - people pay a lot of money to go there, and \ - people die there Safety is at a premium there. Even the best climbers don't always make it. Watch this TED video and tell me this is a superfluous use of technology: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_kamler_medical_miracle_on_everest.html http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_kamler_medical_miracle_on_evere...
- edge17 16y agoThis is a superfluous use of technology. The people that go there already take plenty of precautions. As a climber, I would not rely on a communication channel installed by someone else as anything more than a hail mary. The notion that people are concerning themselves with costs as small as a satphone when already paying upwards of 120k is absurd.
- qq66 16y agoThe cost of a satphone is weight.
- edge17 16y agocompared to what? a 3g enabled device? everything is weight.
- jozo 16y agoThe climbers are only a small part of an expedition. I would imagine this will benefit the locals, who works with the expeditions but can't afford much access to a satellite phone. The project is part of a larger one to provide mobile coverage to 90% of the population. The company also gets experience in deploying stand-alone cell sites in "harsh environments". The actual use on the mountain itself may just turn out as a public relations stunt and some extra bandwidth for media, but that's not the whole story.
- danpker 16y agoI wish phone carriers would focus on getting permanent 3G to places less remote and where people live and use phones.
- eru 16y agoTravellers to Mount Everest are well off and in a spending mood.
- parfe 16y agoMight as well put in a flight of stairs
- jbail 16y agoDefinitely going to incur some roaming charges, but seeing the looks on your friends' faces when you video call them from the top would be absolutely worth it. Now if we can just put a Starbucks and a gondola up there...
- maukdaddy 16y agoand yet I drop calls in the middle of Chicago. Amazing.
- chapel 16y agoWell there goes all the dead spots. Pun intended. Interesting that they would put something like that up there. Most people climbing Mount Everest probably could afford a satellite phone and don't need 3G. Guess it is a luxury for those risking their lives.
- Aegean 16y agoIt's upsetting news that the most popular virgin place on earth is now a little less virgin than before. Step by step, losing its natural value.
- edge17 16y agoeverest has had a relatively elaborate basecamp for years.
- randlet 16y ago4 Square should sponsor a competition to see who can be the first to check in from the summit.
- ck2 16y agoI hear Mt. Everest now has a serious litter problem because of all the people - and it's only been popular since the late 70's. Imagine how much litter is going to be on the moon someday once people can go there for "just" a million dollars.
- phaedrus 16y agoThe surface area of the Moon is much larger than Everest though. IIRC it is similar to the land area of Earth. (Remember that the Moon, although smaller than the Earth, has no oceans.)
- whopa 16y agoTo nitpick, the surface area of the Moon is roughly the same as the area of Africa plus the area of the contiguous US. Much less than the total land area of Earth. It's even less than the area of Asia.
- Nogwater 16y agoI think you're thinking of Mars. Its surface area is nearly that of Earth's land area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars
- ohashi 16y agoNow I have no more excuses for why I am not trying to climb Mount Everest.