Chinese firm provides 3G network at Mount Everest base in Tibet

BEIJING: Mountaineers attempting to scale the world's highest peak Mount Everest from Tibet will now be able to make video calls with their mobile phones as the largest Chinese mobile company has established its station at a 5,200-meter-high base camp.

"A just-finished week-long trial of the No 2 China Mobile 3G base station at the camp has found to be working well, providing a stable network service, according to a statement," issued today by the mobile operator's Tibetan branch.

Zhuo Feng, general manager with the branch, told media that signal from the base station can reach a height of 6,500 meters.

"Tourists were complaining that they could not make phone calls at the base camp," he said.

"Now they can call their friends here and show them the picturesque landscape of Mount Qomolangma, the local name for Mt Everest."

Zhuo said the company does not have any plans to move the base station to a higher altitude for the time being, in consideration of pressure from environmentalists.

He said mobile network has covered 90 per cent of the areas along the route linking Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and the base camp.

The camp is often used as a resting place for climbers preparing for ascents or descents of the 8,848-meter-high Mountain.