By DPA
Beijing : China Mobile has successfully tested a mobile signal station built on Mount Everest at 6,500 metres ahead of next year’s Olympic torch relay on the highest peak of the world.
The world’s highest mobile telecommunications station was tested Tuesday on the 8,844-metre-high mountain, the official China Daily quoted the country’s main mobile service provider, China Mobile, as saying.
The station is designed to serve mountaineers and the relay team who plan to carry an Olympic torch to the summit of Everest in May next year in the run-up to the Beijing games.
According to a China Mobile spokesman, building the station was “incredibly difficult” because of the lack of the oxygen at an altitude where temperatures can plummet to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation has developed a special torch to ensure that the Olympic flame can withstand high winds, snowstorms and lack of oxygen on Everest.
The government has upgraded a road through its Tibet region to the Everest base camp for use by the mountaineers taking part in the torch relay.
Many overseas Tibetan groups and independence activists oppose the torch relay passing through the region, arguing that China will use the event for political purposes.