Huawei, China Mobile builds 5G base stations on Mount Everest to test this new technology in difficult environments
Two of China’s major telecommunications are reported to have successfully built several 5G masts on Mount Everest to show how telecommunications can operate in extreme conditions.
Huawei and China Mobile built the world’s highest 5G network, commemorating the anniversary of two major Chinese milestones in mountaineering.
Five 5G ‘AAU’ base stations were built on the mountain at their base, transition, and forward camps at 5,300, 5,800, and 6,500 meters above sea level, respectively.
These base stations aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of Huawei’s compact and integrated access points, and the Chinese tech company announced that its base stations can offer 20 times the networking capacity and are three times smaller than traditional ones.
The stations will offer download speeds of more than 1.7Gbps (1,700 megabytes) and upload speeds of 215Mbps, even at 6,500 meters above sea level, and will be used to measure Mount Everest in conjunction with various specialists stationed on the mountain.
Additionally, compact base stations reduce the time and labor required for installations, with smaller footprints that increase the number of sites in an area.
The technologies improve speeds through its massive multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technology, increasing speed and capacity by monitoring users per base station and using beamforming, which transmits data directly to each device.
Pakistan becomes the first country to Installed World’s Highest 5G Tower on Mount Everest ?? Using Yaks by Huawei #5GTOWERS pic.twitter.com/e2bEfN0vhV
— Zain Malik?? (@izainmanzoor) May 4, 2020
The announcement comes almost a decade after Huawei installed the world’s highest GSM network at 5200m above sea level.
The company said in a statement: “Huawei firmly believes that technology means improving the world.
Technology before Nature?
The beauty of Mount Everest can be shown through the high definition 5G video and virtual reality experience, which also provides additional information for mountaineers, scientists and other nature specialists.
The news comes amid the U.S. trade war against China, where Washington placed Huawei, ZTE, and more than 70 Chinese tech companies on an Entity List in May last year, citing concerns national security and allegations that those companies could be used to spy on the Chinese government.
Both Huawei and Beijing have repeatedly and abruptly denied the allegations and have demanded that US officials provide evidence to back up their claim, which has so far not been presented.
