Internet Reception Reaches Summit of Mount Everest

(AFP) - Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the internet on their cell phones, a Nepalese telecom group claimed Thursday.

Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, said it set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,200 meters), near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.

"Today we made the [world's] highest video call from Mount Everest base camp successfully. The coverage of the network will reach up to the peak of the Everest," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen said in Kathmandu.