China Mobile, China’s largest mobile phone service provider have successfully transmitted from Mount Everest, making it possible for climbers to make calls from the summit.

The new station, and two other China Mobile stations at 5,200 metres and 5,820 metres, would provide mobile phone service along the entire Mount Everest climbing route

Xinhua News Agency said.

It would also be put into use during this years Olympic torch relay, which will take the flame to the 8,850 metre summit.

Organisers of the Beijing Games plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history - a 137,000 km 130 day route across five continents.

Taking the torch up Everest is technically challenging. Aside from the physical challenge of climbing the mountain, which straddles the border of Nepal and Chinese-controlled Tibet, the torch had to be designed to burn in bad weather, low pressure and high altitude.

Related Articles

• 22.11.07: Supermarket chain uses fingerprint ID for payment (0)
• 17.11.07: Ever wondered what's inside a PS3? (0)
• 17.01.08: Scrabulous to be pulled from Facebook (1)
• 11.01.08: World's most Hi-tech Bed (0)
• 31.07.07: Kazakhstan is the worst place in the world for the Internet (0)