The Mt Everest base camp has gone online, with its first-ever Internet cafe becoming operational using space segment on Americom Asia-Pacific's AAP-1 satellite.

Americom Asia-Pacific, a 50/50 joint venture company of Lockheed Martin and SES Americom, donated bandwidth on the satellite to help make the cafe possible.

The Internet cafe, a brainchild of sherpa Tsering Gyalzen, started functioning last week.

The path between the cafe and the outside world consists of a WiFi connection between the base camp located on a glacier and a satellite earth station installed within two miles of the camp at a height of 16,000 feet.

The AAP-1 satellite then connects the earth station to a teleport in Taipei, which in turn is connected to the Internet backbone via fibre.

Deepak Mathur, Americom Asia-Pacific Managing Director, said, "We are delighted and honoured we are able to participate in this project."

"Since we first became aware of its existence, everything about the cafe has intrigued us -- from the entrepreneurial spirit of Tsering to the mystic nature of Mt Everest to showcasing some of the unique benefits and capabilities of satellite communications technology."