Everest soon in mobile coverage.

Thursday, April 23, 2009: The world's highest mountain peak will soon be getting cell phone service with Nepal Telecom (NT) announcing plans to install a satellite antenna in Gorak Shep, located at an altitude of 5,160 metres. Nepal Telecom will be providing both GSM and CDMA handsets with cell reception on Mt. Everest starting in June.

Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, chief, satellite division, Nepal Telecom, told myrepublica.com, "We are planning to commence the service by mid-June this year. We hope it will provide an alternative to those currently relying on satellite phone services such as the one provided by Thuraya."

NT has installed satellite antennas in around seven locations in the Mt Everest region, including Lukla and Namche Bazar, located at 2,800 metres and 3,440 metres above sea level, respectively. "All these antennas can smoothly handle around 3,000 calls at once. But we will increase the number of terminals depending on the traffic in the region," said NT.

Nepal Telecom currently has around 2.8 million cellphone subscribers across the country.