Everest Million climber Daniel Hughes has described the relief he felt on reaching the summit of the world's tallest peak.

First video call from Everest using Cobham EXPLORER 700

Cobham sponsored Daniel said: "Everest was a job. My mission was to get the Comic Relief red nose to the top and make the video call."

He succeeded on both counts. The BBC interrupted their scheduled programming on 20 May to go live to Daniel at the summit, where he was interviewed with the UK charity's iconic red nose clamped on his oxygen mask.

Historic call

To make that famous call Daniel used the Cobham SATCOM EXPLORER 700 BGAN terminal which allowed him to make the historic video call on his HTC smartphone.

"I called the BBC on my IsatPhone Pro to give them a 10-minute heads-up, then got everything ready.

"BGAN was flawless. It was as if I was setting it up at sea level. I've been testing the kit for two years and this was text book."

360-degree view

Viewers were able to share the 360-degree view from 8,848 metres (29,029ft) as Daniel panned round with his smartphone.

For Daniel, a commercial airline pilot, the culmination of two and a half years' planning and training was a brief pause at the top of the world before he began the treacherous descent.

"I was nervous being there," he admitted. "I didn't want to stand there for 20 minutes taking it all in - I just wanted to go. 

Dangerous peak

"Everest is a big, dangerous mountain, and you don't celebrate until you get back down to base camp and count all your fingers and toes."

The toughest part of the entire challenge was waiting to make the final ascent at the Hillary Step - a 12-metre (40ft) near-vertical rockface leading to the summit.

"It gets quite clogged with people, and you just have to wait at the bottom of the step, knowing that the weather can change very quickly and that you only have a finite amount of oxygen," he explained. 

Achievement

Drew Brandy, Vice President, Industry at Inmarsat, said: "Inmarsat congratulates Daniel on his tremendous achievement in scaling Mount Everest in order to raise money to combat child poverty.

"We are delighted that we were able to support him with our BGAN service and provide connectivity throughout the ascent, culminating in the first ever video call from the summit of the world's tallest peak."

Now safely back home in London, Daniel continues to work hard to raise money for UK charity Comic Relief's projects to relieve child poverty around the world. 

The Equipment

First video call from Everest using Cobham EXPLORER 700

Donate

He can receive donations in the UK via SMS (text Nose70 £1 to 70070) or his website www.everestmillion.com

About Cobham

Cobham protects lives and livelihoods with its differentiated technology and know-how, operating with a deep insight to customer needs and agility. The Group offers an innovative range of technologies and services to solve challenging problems across commercial, defence and security markets, from deep space to the depths of the ocean. It has market leading positions in air-to-air refuelling; aviation services; audio, video and data communications, including satellite communications; defence electronics; life support and mission equipment. The most important thing Cobham builds is trust.

About Cobham SATCOM

Cobham SATCOM develops, manufactures, sells and supports satellite and radio communication terminals and earth stations for land, marine and airborne applications. With the ever increasing demand for communication, our products and services are used to satisfy the needs of a wide variety of commercial, governmental and recreational applications.

Cobham SATCOM uses state-of-the-art technologies to design affordable, highly reliable high performance systems that have decreased over time in terms of size, weight and power consumption. Our products enable people to stay in touch under the most challenging and demanding conditions. When traditional communication technologies fail, Cobham SATCOM's products will keep providing our customers with high quality voice, data, and multimedia communications.

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