World's highest cellphone call made with Motorola Z8

He did it, British climber Rod Baber made a cell mobile phone (apparently using a MOTORIZR Z8, not a satellite phone) call from the top of Mount Everest. In fact, he made the record breaking call twice: the first to a voice mail account, the other to his wife and children. He even sent a text message to Moto which read, "One small text for man, one giant leap for mobilekind - thanks Motorola." Real cute, Rod. The Motorola sponsored "world record" was made possible by a Chinese mobile base station installed with a line of sight to the north ridge. Officially, the calls were made at 29,035 feet (about 8,848 meters) in temperatures of -22 degress fahrenheit (-30 degrees centigrade) -- so cold that Rod had to tape the batteries to his body just to keep them active. We're not sure where he stored the banana-shaped Z8. Of course, anyone who has ever made a call from a commercial aircraft (hey, it happens) knows that it's really not a record, but who are we to argue with Guinness?

[Via BBC, thanks Mook]

[mentalsticks @ May 22nd 2007 6:26AM]

>We're not sure where he stored the banana-shaped Z8

you just couldn't resist, could you, Thomas?

[shmengie @ May 22nd 2007 8:01AM]

dude, that is radically extreme to the max! that guy is doin' the dew fer sure!!

[Michael Mason @ May 22nd 2007 8:01AM]

Thats because commercial aircraft doesn't use the same cell phone system, they have their own. It uses different frequencies and usually communicates with satellites.

[Aman Patel @ May 22nd 2007 9:08AM]

I thought they meant using a conventional mobile phone from a commercial flight. Something, I've had the opportunity to experiment with a number of times. I haven't tried it for years, though. Of course, unlike Rod, I was able to wear short sleeves without freezing solid.

[bgdc @ May 22nd 2007 12:30PM]

Actually, he meant some people use their normal cell phone from a plane. My old boss has done this for years. She talks throughout her flights and has never had a problem.

[strider_mt2k @ May 22nd 2007 9:41AM]

If a mobile station was set up specifically to support this venture then what's the big deal?

[NovaLand @ May 22nd 2007 10:53AM]

Agree! It's like setting up a station locally on an airplane and make a phonecall from the plane..

[ab @ May 22nd 2007 9:53AM]

I dunno, I've made some pretty high calls before. =)

[Brandon @ May 22nd 2007 10:55AM]

They weren't talking about shrooms or ex.

[harpreet @ May 22nd 2007 11:03AM]

Wait a minute!!! This guy climbed all the way till the top of mount
everest just to make a phone call!! why didn't he just use some
public phone boot to do that

just kidding.....keep it up Rod Barber!!

[MaXKiLLz @ May 22nd 2007 11:03AM]

What about the cellphone call made from the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea, the Cayman Trough, at 25,216ft down? Doesn't that count for anything?!

[Frankenstein Black @ May 22nd 2007 11:38AM]

IF true, this is waaaay more impressive a feet than setting up a MBS specifically for these calls. Do you have a link MaXK?

[Stephan @ May 22nd 2007 12:16PM]

He messed up the text message it should have been

"One small text for A man, one giant leap for mobilekind - thanks Motorola"

[jim jonze @ May 22nd 2007 6:10PM]

Yeah, you can make cell calls from airlines. Just look at the people from Flight 93 who were calling home in the middle of the hijacking. I do wonder if you need analog capability to pull it off, though, so you may be limited to dual-mode CDMA models.

[ross @ May 22nd 2007 6:51PM]

Guilty.. ive used my phone on a plane before.. (OH NO FAA IS GANNA GET ME!!! AHH)
i saw mythbustes and how the gsm band signals do not intrupt the planes navigation at all.... so yeah..

[aleko @ May 22nd 2007 11:30PM]

the guinnes shuold be for the tecnicals and engineers that instal the Chinese mobile base station, the imalaya is not a easy work area

[Jan @ May 23rd 2007 4:41AM]

Citation; http://physics911.net/cellphoneflight93

Conventional cell phones don't work at 30,000 feet. The phone calls from flight 93 were a lie.