By Adela Suliman
If your climb to the top of Africa's tallest mountain isn't posted on Instagram, did it even, like, happen?
Adventurers can now upload their ascents to share with family, friends and followers in real time, after Tanzania's Information Ministry moved this week to install high-speed internet in the area.
"Today Up on Mount Kilimanjaro: I am hoisting high-speed INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS (BROADBAND) on the ROOF OF AFRICA," tweeted Tanzania's minister of information and communication, Nape Moses Nnauye. "Tourists can now communicate worldwide from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro."
At an event on Tuesday about 3 800m above sea level, flanked by officials and international tourists, Nnauye proclaimed that high-speed internet, provided by the state-run Tanzania Telecommunications Corp, was now available to all.
Plans to extend the coverage to the Uhuru Peak, 5 880m above sea level, are in place for the end of the year, he added.
"Previously, it was a bit dangerous for visitors and porters who had to operate without internet," Nnauye said, according to AFP. "All visitors will get connected… (up to) this point of the mountain," he added, speaking from the Horombo Huts campsite on the mountainside.
Nnauye also called for the state-run internet provider to extend operations to other off-grid tourist sites and national parks.
The move has been welcomed by some in Tanzania as a boost to the tourism industry, but others derided the government on social media for not ensuring better internet access in remote villages and towns and improving services in commercial centres.
Tourism is vital to Tanzania's economy, accounting for about $1.4billion in revenue in 2021, almost 6% of its gross domestic product. The sector is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which saw global travel grind to a halt.
Mount Kilimanjaro stands as high as 13 Empire State buildings and is a protected Unesco World Heritage site.
It is also Earth's largest free-standing volcanic mass, and its snowy top attracts visitors from across the world to Tanzania. Thousands of tourists attempt to climb Kilimanjaro annually, taking about a week to summit the majestic mountain.
The internet roll-out is part of a wider government project, called the National ICT Broadband Backbone, which is partly supported by China.
Beijing has long sought to finance and develop communication and other infrastructure in the East African nation, and China's ambassador to Tanzania, Chen Mingjian, tweeted her support for the Kilimanjaro project on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, on a tour of the continent, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the Biden administration's strategy for developing partnerships to help African nations become less dependent on foreign aid and address challenges such as climate change.
The push comes as China pours money into Africa in the form of loans and investment and Russia sends arms and mercenaries.
"The United States will not dictate Africa's choices, and neither should anyone else," Blinken said in an address at South Africa's University of Pretoria. "The right to make these choices belongs to Africans, and Africans alone."
Tanzania's government sparked uproar in recent years after announcing plans for a cable-car system on the southern side of Kilimanjaro, to boost tourist numbers and provide access to those unable to climb it.
Expedition groups, porters who help climbers and climate experts said the project would endanger the mountain's delicate ecosystem and hurt the local economy.
Earlier this month, climate experts warned that Africa's national parks, home to thousands of wildlife species, were increasingly threatened by below-average rainfall, prolonged drought and large scale infrastructure projects that hamper conservation efforts.
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