Yes, There is a Wi-Fi Service on Mount Everest

One of the most common reasons why people choose to climb mountains is to disconnect for some time while going on an adventure with nature. High altitude places are perfect for this kind of break because of the little to no network signal for Internet access.

But apparently, that’s not the case in the tallest mountain in the world.

There is a Wi-Fi service in Mount Everest also reaching nearby mountains of Nepal. And Everest Link, the company behind this feat, provides a steady connection between 100 megabits a second and 200 megabits a second over links of 80 to 90 kilometers.

“At the moment, we’re connected to the Everest base camp. There, at 5,320 meters altitude, we have a solar-powered cnPilot E500 outdoor Wi-Fi hotspot,” said Tsering G. Sherpa, CEO of Everest Link.

However, hikers can’t connect to the Internet on top of Mount Everest just yet.

But before the Internet connection was installed, it took Sherpa quite a difficult experience to start the business.

Tsering G. Sherpa, CEO of Everest Link, in front of his office near Mount Everest. Photo by Cambium Networks via Venture Beat

In a blog post, Sherpa said that communication in Nepal before the year 2000 was through a written letter, sometimes delivered by helicopter. Her sisters lived in the country until they had to leave for India, leaving behind their business, to take care of their mother diagnosed with breast cancer.

And because the communication between India and Nepal was poor at the time, the business suffered and eventually lost profit for a year. Sherpa said their mother has since passed away.

Not taking the communication problem sitting down, Sherpa established a network in Nepal to connect remote villages to the Internet. It had a pilot speed of 128 kilobits per second.

For a while it went well until Nepal went through a period of political unrest. “We had to abstain from providing service, going on hiatus for eight years due to threats from extremists,” Sherpa wrote.

In 2014, the service of Everest Link resumed, but with a fresh, broader mission: to set standards for ecological, economical, and reliable modes of direct communication in the Himalayas.

“It took us a couple of attempts to get established, beginning with low-cost Wi-Fi equipment, and then progressing from 802.11b to g,” he said.

It tapped the cnPilot equipment of Cambium Networks, a Rolling Meadows Il.-based company that created “frictionless Wi-Fi” which can support many different access points through a single wireless network.

Ever since, Everest Link has provided more than 200 Wi-Fi hot spots in more than 40 villages, connecting 34,000 locals and more than 40,000 tourists each year.

Source: Venture Beat