Mt. Kilimanjaro
Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) to provide Internet access on Mt. Kilimanjaro
The Tanzanian government has announced that state-owned mobile operator Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) has begun connecting Mt. Kilimanjaro– Africa’s highest mountain – to the internet.
The government said that it had completed the installation of telecommunications equipment 3,720 meters up the mountainside, providing access to a high-speed broadband connection for the thousands of climbers that visit the mountain every year.
By the end of this year, TTC says it will have deployed infrastructure covering Kilimanjaro’s summit at 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) above sea level. The specific technologies used to provide these Internet services available and the speeds have not been revealed.
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Climbing the Mountain:
Mt. Kilimanjaro is not a technical mountain climb. There are several trails that lead to the summit which take between 5 and 8 days, depending on the hiker’s physical condition and stamina. Most climbers are encouraged to tackle the mountain when the weather is driest as it is safer and much more enjoyable. Precipitation is lowest from August to October, making those the best months to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
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“Today Up on Mount Kilimanjaro: I am hoisting high-speed INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS (BROADBAND) on the ROOF OF AFRICA,” wrote Tanzania’s minister of information, communication and information technology, Nape Moses Nnauye in a tweet.
The Tanzania government says that the infrastructure deployment will allow for greater safety while up on the mountain, giving climbers better access to emergency services, as well as navigation and weather information.
While this is certainly a major advantage for prospective climbers, mountaineering organisations have warned climbers to be wary of an overreliance on fallible technology.
Beyond safety concerns, perhaps a bigger driver for this infrastructure deployment is the connectivity’s potential positive impact on tourism.
In recent years, the Tanzanian government has been realigning its tourism strategy with regard to the continent’s most famous mountain, including last year announcing a controversial plan to build a cable car on mountain’s southern slope. Allowing tourists to post pictures and engage with social media while climbing the mountain itself, will surely be a boon for the country’s tourism board.
Another interested party that seems particularly excited about this announcement has been the Chinese government, which has been helping Tanzania to invest in connectivity infrastructure for many years.
According to data from the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC), China is Tanzania’s largest source of foreign investment, funding projects transportation, manufacturing, mining, tourism, agriculture, fishing, agro-processing, and, indeed, telecommunications. In 2017, for example, China’s Exim Bank loaned the Tanzanian government $70 million for the rollout of the first phase of the nation’s fibre optic backbone project. Tanzania is also a key location in the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that China will have helped put connectivity equipment on a mountaintop. Back in 2020, Huawei and China Mobile announced that they had deployed 5G connectivity at the summit of Mount Everest, describing it is achieving ‘mission impossible.’
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