Climbing
Workers have finished installing the highest 5G tower in the world – on Mount Everest. The mast was installed at 21,325-feet by China Mobile Hong Kong and Huawei. Everest is 29,028-feet high.
Yaks have been used to carry over eight tons of high-tech infrastructure up the mountain to enable the expansion of the controversial 5G network.
China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) announced the completion of the joint installation on Facebook, boasting that it had “successfully built more 5G base stations, including 6,500 meters above sea level on the highest peak, Mount Everest”. The firm added that it would help improve communication for “mountaineering friends” for whom it was no longer “a dream to reach 8K live broadcasts with relatives and friends on 5G network”. They also plan to use the network in order to settle once and for all the true height of Mount Everest.
Huawei said the extremely compact technology it has developed for 5G made it particularly suitable for deployment in the extreme environment found on Mount Everest, reports The Sun. 16-miles of fiber optic cables were also laid.
Three 5G base stations have already been built at Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 17,388-feet, and a transition camp at 19,028-feet. A further two stations have now been installed at the 21,325-feet-high elevation camp, so the signal will be able to cover the summit of Mount Everest.
The 5G rollout has come under fire (literally) recently, as conspiracy theorists link it to the spread of the coronavirus, resulting in dozens of masts being vandalized and/or set on fire in the UK in recent weeks.
When you call 5G “controversial”, it would be good to clarify whether we’re talking about 5G causes COVID (or whatever the health problem du jour may be) controversial, or bringing 8 tons of tech up a mountain controversial.