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Practical Plans for the Ends of the Earth

The man who brought the wireless Internet to the slopes of Mt. Everest tells us what challenges he has lined up next.

by Dave Hughes [July 2, 2004]

On the ISP-Wireless list in June, Dave Hughes posted a call to arms to Wireless ISPs (WISPs). We asked permission to publish his call to arms (see Related articles, below) and also asked him about himself.

Here's what he told the list about his plans for the future:

Yes, you can publish my note in ISP-Planet

Yes, I am the Dave Hughes who brought wireless broadband to Mount Everest, twice. First time just through my technical and geographical advice via e-mail and VoIP to Sherpas and Kathmandu Worldlink who wanted to put up a Cybercafe at Everest Base Camp at 18,500 feet so they could do it with a combination of Cisco 350s linked to an IP Satellite ground unit near Kalipatar and the 'cafe' location amidst the tents, away from the Khumbu Glacier that moves 4 feet a day.

Only took them 18 Yaks to lug the stuff up there! They charge $1 a minute to the climbing parties and journalists in the Cafe Tent on 5 computers at the base of the Ice Fall, to chit chat. That was May 2003.

Second time, which is still ongoing, I donated $3,000 worth of Smartbridges and stuff and trekked my 75 year old body up 12 miles and 3,000 feet to Namche Bazar last November (while Sherpas carried the 150lbs on their backs, not mine.) To where a Sherpa has a satellite feed, but only had 3 computers in his cybercafe, while lots of trekkers wanted to use them. So the wireless links to several lodges and computers there.

And then, requiring three relays, and a 5 mile link, one hanging off the side of a monastary at 14,000 feet, extending the net to 10 Sherpa kids in a school in very poor Thame, Nepal, where they are now taking English and Computer classes over the net from a Nepalese, Sherpa, English-speaking Sherpa programmer in Pittsburgh, Penn., including, from time to time, two way VoIP voice. Works. Even though the two satellite hop latency is 1,200 ms.

Now somebody wants me to connect up a college on the Marianas Pacific Island of Saipan, 10 miles to Tinian, and 60 more to Rota. Under palm trees. A bit of a change.

May do that after I get Phase II done in the Chihuahua Desert of Southern New Mexico, where one has to fly helicopter to the rock topped mesa to tweak the systems. And drill holes in the granite to anchor the solar panels.

Yeah, I do some rural things.

Dave Hughes

For more on Dave Hughes, see his West Point Distinguished Graduates Award.

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