Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a Nepalese   telecom group claims. Ncell, a branch company of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, said on Thursday it had set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres in the Everest region. "Today we made the world's highest video call from Mount Everest base camp successfully. The coverage   of the network will reach up to the peak of Mount Everest," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen told reporters in Kathmandu. The installation   will also help tens of thousands of tourists and hikers who visit the world's highest mountain every year. Climbers who reached its 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive satellite phones and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain. "This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high speed Internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services from the world's tallest mountain," said Lars Nyberg, chief executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80 percent of Ncell. The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the Internet, said the company, which also claimed the world's lowest 3G base at 1,400 metres below sea level in a mine in Europe. Despite the installation in Mount Everest, telecom services cover less than one-third of the 28 million people of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. TeliaSonera said it planned to invest $ 100 million in the next year to ensure that mobile coverage increases to more than 90 per cent of the Himalayan nation's population. The 3G network on Mount Everest puts TeliaSonera ahead of state-controlled Nepal Telecom, Indian-owned United Telecom and China Mobile. Around 3,000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak in 1953. According to Lars Nyberg, the 3G services they provide   _  .
are fast and convenient are a little expensive can make voice-only calls offer free emailing