Cybercafe At Mt. Everest

Makarand writes "A Nepalese entrepreneur, Tsering Gyalzen, is making plans to set up a cybercafe at Mt Everest basecamp and open it by March. Proceeds from the venture will be used to support solid waste management in the area. VSAT digital satellite equipment installed a 2-hour trek-distance away from base camp will be used to send signals to the internet cafe using radio links."

dup

[Anonymous Coward]

this is a dup

Cisco news release is here

[forged]

Cisco Donates Equipment to Build the World's Highest Wireless Connection On Mount Everest [cisco.com]

The announcement was made on January 23, and it's nice to see things moving along. Cisco's announcement has a lot more details than the article reported today.

Re:Heh

[ishmaelflood]

No, there's about 20-40 a day get to the old base camp (Gorak Shep) during the walking season. BTDT

Re:Heh

[mlush]

Good business idea, specially when only 100 people climb every year. But Im sure they all pay good to send some emails when they get back to basecamp.

Perhaps only 100 climb, but how many visit? A very brief search got me 4 guided treks to Base Camp, it a tourist destination nowadays!

On top of that I think that the climbers will be more interested in downloading weather data (though the tourist will be sending their emails)

Re:Heh

[kubla2000]

On top of that I think that the climbers will be more interested in downloading weather data (though the tourist will be sending their emails)

Well, all expeditions are equipped with their own satellite network links these days. Check out the climbing section of mountainzone.com http://climb.mountainzone.com/ for example. Most expeditions now also have a dedicated blogger who writes for a newspaper and a website. All this data, including satellite phone calls home (and to the sponsors) are the norm now.

The cafe will, I imagine, be for the tourists for whom base camp is the destination. It won't play a part in expeditions or expeditions planning.

Re:Heh

[Totto]

But Im sure they all pay good to send some emails when they get back to basecamp.

I climbed the highest mountain in the Americas last year. There was e-mail access at Base Camp, 20 miles into the mountains, at 14400 feet. Solar-powered PC and satelite phone.

Outgoing e-mail cost $4 per 250 bytes of text. Incoming e-mail was available with prior agreement.

Consider that rate for a moment. I am certain you can expect even more spectacular rates here.

(I'd also make damn sure to keep the incoming address away from spam-lists, but that is another matter).

Re:Heh

[mosch]

It's not entirely a foolish idea. There's a bakery near the Everest Base Camp that's been in business for at least five or six years.

The 100 person per year figure you cited is approximately how many people successfully summit a year. There's a large number of people who go part way and give up, and significantly more than that who don't want to climb Everest at all, but are just trekking in Sagarmatha National Park.

NPR bit

[queequeg1]

NPR had a nice bit a few weeks ago interviewing the guy setting this up. NPR story [npr.org]