Mt Everest now has cell phone service

by Kraig Becker on

Nepali cell phone company Ncell announced this week that they have activated a cell tower in Mt. Everest base camp, providing reliable 3G coverage on the mountain for the first time. To commemorate the launch of the service, the technicians completed the highest altitude video call ever from 5300 meters (17,388 feet) on the mountain.

Ncell’s service will replace expensive, and often unreliable, satellite phones, which can be easily disrupted by bad weather and technical issues. Sat phones have been the defacto standard on Everest for years but the new cell service offers not only improved voice communications, but also a relatively speedy data connection all the way to the summit, located at 8849 meters (29,035 feet). That data connection will allow for photos, audio, and even video to be shared by climbers.

The new cell tower won’t just provide coverage for climbers and trekkers on and around Everest however. It will also give Nepali citizens living in the Khumbu Valley the ability to make phone calls for the very first time. The remote region has few modern conveniences, but in a country that only has cell coverage for about a third of its people, this is a big step forward for communications. Ncell, and it’s partner TeliaSonera, plan to spend about $100 million to expand coverage to 90% of Nepal’s population by the end of next year. Considering the challenges of travel in the Himalaya, that will be quite a feat.

It is impressive that visitors to Mt. Everest can now make a phone call, even while standing on the summit. Now if only AT&T could eliminate the dead zones in my home town. Then I’ll be really impressed.

Wiki catalogues pay-as-you-go SIM cards by country

by Grant Martin on

Our good friend and technomad Paul Oppenheim stopped by this week with a dispatch from Germany and some more info on his current holy quest: to find an international phone plan that supports data and that doesn’t cost more than the mortgage on his condo in San Francisco.

Those familiar with data plans and roaming charges outside of the US might be familiar with the sad details: taking one’s smartphone outside of one’s home country can be an expensive endeavor. Sure, there’s international infrastructure and partnerships to forge, but is that all worth a twelve thousand dollar phone bill? Probably not.

As a result, many opt to use a different Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card while abroad — something, perhaps, with less aggressive data charges. The problems with that notion though are that you need to have a different (local) phone number and that until recently there wasn’t a great place to research carriers internationally. Spanish providers, for example, tend to provide all of their subscriber info and instructions on local, Spanish sites.

Part of that has changed with the paygsimwithdata repository over at wikia. There, travelers can leaf through a wide spectrum of providers sorted by country and service, with many vendors broken down by availability, pricing and value. And yes, it’s all in English.

Bear in mind that while traveling you’ll still have to suffer with a different, local phone number, but having connectivity for a reasonable cost is a small price to pay.

[Flickr image via mroach]

Daily Pampering: The little black cellphone dress

by Melanie Nayer on

The little black dress is a staple in women’s closets, and soon it will ring. London-based fashion company CuteCircuit has just released the newest version of the Little Black Dress, complete with a cell phone.

Called the “M-Dress” (Mobile Phone Dress), the elegant silk jersey dress also doubles as mobile phone. All you do is slide your standard SIM card into the dress label and you’ll be able to make and receive calls without carrying around your phone. When the dress rings, the simple gesture of bringing your hand to the ear will allow the sensor to answer the call. When you’re done with the call, simply drop your hand and the dress will close the call.

According to CuteCircuit’s website, “The M-Dress was designed after our research showed that very often phone calls are missed because mobile phones are quite awkward to carry, especially for women, that have garments with small or no pockets.”

The LBD of the future won’t be out until sometime in 2011, and the price hasn’t been set yet, but we’re keeping a close eye on this one and will let you know when it’s available (and when we get our hands on one!).

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Daily Pampering: Gresso’s $1 million jackpot phone

by Melanie Nayer on

You don’t have to win big in Las Vegas to act like a high-roller. For a cool $1 million you can purchase Gresso’s Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot cellphone, which will no doubt show people you’re worth it even if you didn’t win.

The Luxor Las Vegas phones have cases made of solid gold, are embellished with a bezel and feature a 200-year-old Balckwood on the back panel. The phone’s case is made of pure gold and weighs 180 grams and, as if that wasn’t enough, the case is encrusted with black diamonds. According to Gresso, each key on the keyboard is made of sapphires, although we can’t verify since we have yet to get our hands on one.

Want one? Get in line – there are only three available in the entire world.
A word of advice to the wealthy three who capture one of these Jackpots: if you’re going to talk the talk, please walk the walk, and dress the part. The phone is worth $1 million so make sure you look like $1 million when it’s in your hand.

Want more? Get your dose of Daily Pampering right here.

Lessons Learned: I lost my cell phone and actually got it back

by Amy Chen on

Losing a cell phone at any time is inconvenient, but when you’re on the road, it can certainly put a dent in your travel plans.

I’ve yet to lose my wallet or passport while traveling, but I lost my cell phone last weekend when I was on a road trip in New England. It was well past midnight when I reached into my bag to charge it back up. Nothing. A mild panic attack later, I went to sleep (and told myself that it must be somewhere in the car because it was definitely not in the hotel room).

Turns out I had dropped the phone in a parking lot, and by some miracle, someone found it the next morning and actually cared enough to reunite me with it. I know that I was lucky, and I’m grateful that I didn’t have to deal with replacing all my contacts — or finding a cell phone bill with mysterious international calls and excess charges.

In a time when people have come to rely on cell phones to be GPS devices and now mobile boarding passes, I was lucky that I could go to sleep for most of the time my phone was missing and wasn’t actually stranded because of my carelessness.

In retrospect, there were a lot of things that I should’ve done differently. Here are some lessons that I learned the hard way.

1. Always leave your contact info or itinerary with someone.

It was a last-minute trip, so I didn’t think about leaving my itinerary with anyone. I assumed that since it was just one night, people could always reach me on my cell phone. So when the person who found my phone checked my recent calls and reached my sister, my sister then called my mom, who didn’t know that I had even left New York (much less knew the name of the inn I was at). Sorry, everyone.

2. Print out a hard copy of your itinerary.

I’ve gotten in the habit of not printing out itineraries, thinking that I can just retrieve the confirmation number or address from a Web-enabled phone. Usually it’s not a problem, but as I learned this past weekend, it’s not a bad idea to have a paper backup. As it is, my phone battery has a way of dying at the most inopportune times, like when it’s pitch black and you’re trying to find a B&B. So sometimes you have to go retro, pull into a gas station, and actually ask a human for directions. On this trip, I ended up finding the inn the old-fashioned way — by picking up a free tourist map and navigating without the help of Google maps. Old school, but effective.

3. Accept that your cell phone is not really a lifeline.

By the time I was reunited with my phone the next morning, the battery was all but dead so I couldn’t use it on the drive back. The agony.

4. If you find a lost cell phone, try your best to reunite it with the owner.

To the good Samaritan who found my phone, thank you. I will be sure to pay it forward.

[Photo by effika via Flickr]