【1988 Archives】

Soon you will988 Archivesinternet access in the Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Visitors will be able to tweet, chat, email and share from the Lukla-Everest Base Camp and the Annapurna Base Camp with the help of free Wi-Fi offered by Nepal.

Its state-run regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), announced on Wednesday that it plans to set up free W-Fi zones along the Everest base camp, a hugely popular destination for trekkers and mountaineers.

The service will operate on the “Okumura Model," which uses low-cost optical fiber cables for high-speed internet. Special cold-and-ice-resistant optical fibers will be used, and if they don't work in the high altitudes, other technologies such as micro-wave will be used.

This, however, is not the first attempt to take internet connectivity to the region. Earlier in 2010, Nepal's private telecom operator Ncell had launched 3G services in the Everest base camp. But that failed to catch on.

At present, some hotels and restaurants in the area offer Wi-Fi at a rate of up to $5 per hour. Furthermore, one can buy credits amounting to ½ GB of internet from Everest Link at around $8 in a place called Machermo, a small village in the region.

The intended Wi-Fi zones will not only improve communication during natural disasters and accidents, which the base camp is quite prone to, but will also boost tourism as travelers and trekkers can share their experiences with family and friends almost instantaneously.

Wi-Fi in high altitudes has never been smooth though. In-flight Wi-Fi services are super-slow and mighty expensive. Gogo, the biggest provider of such services, has been sloppy, but it's now planning an upgrade.

Over to Nepal to tell us if the Mount Everest can do it better!

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