British explorer holds first ever smartphone video call on Mount Everest

British mountaineer Daniel Hughes has made the first ever live video call from a smartphone at the peak on Mount Everest.

As The Verge notes, the call isn’t the first from the world’s highest peak, but it is the first video call made using a smartphone.

Hughes, who undertook the climb, made the call from the top of the world using an HTC One as part of his fund-raising efforts the Comic Relief charity. Speaking to the BBC, he said: “as you can see, this is the world’s first live video call, never been done before, from the rooftop of the world.”

Hughes reportedly used Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network service, which has been used to help other climbers make calls from Everest in the past. While climbing Everest is far more common than it once was, it’s still an impressive athletic feat.

It’s perhaps a little surprising therefore that the mountaineer has only managed to raise £40 673 of his £1 000 000 goal.