World’s southernmost cellular base station installed in Antarctica

Antarctica (AFP): Norway’s Telenor has installed the southernmost mobile phone base station in the world in Antarctica, marking a breakthrough for data collection and the safety of researchers, the phone operator said Tuesday.

At the 72nd parallel south, the installation — located near the Norwegian polar research station Troll — was put into operation in February, according to Telenor.

Telenor also recently put the world’s northernmost base station into operation, the Ny Alesund station at the 79th parallel north on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard in the Arctic.

Setting up a 4G network around Troll “increases the safety of those working in the field”, Christian Skottun, Head of Telenor Svalbard, told AFP.

“It also makes it easier to transmit anywhere in the world and in realtime the data collected by the scientists’ measuring instruments”, he added.

The Troll station is home to six maintenance staff during the winter and several dozen during the peak of scientific activity in the austral summer.

It serves as a base for biological, glaciological and geological research, as well as gathering meteorological, atmospheric and seismic data.