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Tanzania has installed high-speed internet service on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, and anyone can tweet, Instagram or WhatsApp from a smartphone to climb Africa’s highest mountain.
State-owned Tanzania Telecom set up its broadband network on Tuesday at an altitude of 3,720 meters (12,200 feet) in an event that Information Minister Nape Nnauye called historic.
“Previously, it was a bit dangerous for tourists and porters who had to work without the internet,” Nnauye said at the launch of the service next to government officials and tourists.
“All the tourists will be connected … (until) this point in the mountain,” he said at the Holumbo hut, one of the camps heading to the summit.
The 5,895-meter (19,300-foot) summit will have internet connectivity by the end of the year, he said.
Last year, the Tanzanian government announced plans to build a cable car on the southern side of Mount Kilimanjaro, sparking an uproar among climbers, expedition companies and environmentalists.
Mount Kilimanjaro is an important source of tourism revenue for Tanzania and neighboring Kenya, with around 35,000 people attempting to summit each year.
Immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, the mountain is part of a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Technology is increasingly permeating the mountaineering world, and Everest climbers have easy access to wifi, generators, and smartphones, allowing them to share photos and make SOS calls in the event of an accident.
By contrast, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited the world’s highest mountain on May 29, 1953, news did not reach the outside world until June 2, just in time for Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of the world.
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