Sherpa to sherpa calls will now be free after 9 pm!China's largest cell phone service provider successfully tested a transmission station on Mount Everest on Tuesday, making it possible for climbers and those on next year's Olympic torch relay to make calls, or text message their friends.
China Mobile had yaks and porters to help transport equipment up to the station site at 21,325 feet, which in tandem with stations at 17,060 feet and 19,095 feet, would provide cell phone service along the entire Mount Everest climbing route. The construction was "incredibly difficult" because the oxygen level was only 38 percent of what it would be on the ground, a company spokesman said.
Immediately after a call was made from the station to test the line, workers began packing away the equipment for the winter. The station will be reassembled before the Olympic torch relay next summer.
An official with Tibet Mobile, the Tibetan subsidiary of China Mobile, said the station would operate based on the needs of mountaineers and scientists, and it was not known whether the two other stations operate on a continuous basis. It was also unknown whether Tibet Mobile would suffer oppression at the hands of it's parent company.
And since the assemblage of a cell tower is hardly interesting, perhaps you would enjoy a story about the mighty mountain called Everest.
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