High anxiety over hotel's mobile-phone blackout

VISITORS to the world's highest hotel in Shanghai have been left speechless by the spectacular view, the ultra-modern decor . . . and the fact that their mobile phones refuse to work at such lofty heights.

Staff at the Grand Hyatt hotel, located on the upper floors of the 88-storey Jin Mao building, discovered soon after opening day that reception for cellphones was either patchy or non-existent.

Business visitors entertaining clients in the hotel's gourmet outlets have had to endure the face-losing embarrassment of being unable to bark commands into their slim and expensive machines.

Technicians have been working frantically to try to solve the problem, which has taken the shine off the Jin Mao's proud boast of being the mainland's tallest building and the world's third-highest structure - not to mention Shanghai's aspirations to be considered a modern city with Hong Kong levels of engineering sophistication.

The unforeseen glitch has been blamed on the amount of metal used in the construction of the Jin Mao, a skyscraper meant to be a modern interpretation of a traditional Chinese pagoda, which soars high above the Pudong waterfront.

Work so far completed has radically improved the reception and by next week mobile phone-users should be able to make and receive calls with ease.