The highest cellular base station in East Asia is to begin operating on Yushan (玉山) today after the government spent seven years planning and building it, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Central Region Regulatory Department Director Huang Chung-chi (黃琮祺) said that the cell tower is 3,858m above sea level, near the mountain’s north peak.
As far as the department knows, it is the highest in East Asia, he said.
The tower is in a remote area that is difficult to access, he said, adding that it is powered by solar energy, as it would have cost too much to transport gas or diesel there.
The tower was necessary because Yushan, which is 3,952m tall, draws approximately 50,000 to 60,000 mountaineers each year.
It was inevitable that some mountain climbers would be injured and the poor communication service was often the reason they were not able to receive timely medical assistance, he said.
The cell tower’s construction was a complicated project because it involved coordinating between five government agencies and five telecoms, he added.
“When we started planning the project in 2012, none of the five telecoms dared calculate the construction cost of building such a facility, because they knew the sum would be extremely high,” he said. “They listed a bunch of problems, and we helped resolve all of them by communicating with the responsible government agencies,” he said.
The telecoms then budgeted the fund to build the cell tower after the problems were solved, he said.
The tower’s construction was challenging for the contractor, as there was no power or water supply, Huang said, adding that the contractor was only secured after holding six or seven public tender sessions.
As Yushan is closed to visitors when there are typhoons or other natural disasters, the commission did not finish its final inspection of the tower until June, Huang said.
The station cost about NT$43.74 million (US$1.4 million at the current exchange rate) to build, he said.
The NCC is to hold a ceremony today to mark the launch of the cell station, which is to be attended by Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
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