Carrier Pigeon faster than commercial ISP

[Josh]

FRUSTRATED IT workers have shown that a pigeon can transfer data faster than a major internet service provider (ISP).

Workers at a South African information technology company this week proved it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom, the country's leading ISP.

Africa's largest economy has poor internet speed and connectivity – and high costs - because of a bandwidth shortage.

Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to its leg.

More at Source.

[lanux128]

lol, the same could be said for the ISP that i subscribe to, except that i have no carrier pigeon to prove it.

[f0dder]

In theory, you cold probably always have a carrier pigeon faster than your intarweb tube speed (unless you're on a university backbone) - but this example is pretty scary... sounds like a really messed up grid to me.

[Kamel]

There was actually a study done long ago that proved a snail could go faster than the fastest internet backbone. I believe they attached 2 dual layer dvd's to the snail and made it travel 5 inches or something to that effect. Surely when compared to transferring to the other side of the world it wouldn't win *shrugs*. I tried to find a link but google is failing me, or I'm failing it

[cranioscopical]

The story may be true, but who wants to carry a pigeon?

[4wd]

I tried to find a link but google is failing me, or I'm failing it

The search: Google

The site:

[CleverCat]

I can verify that - I live here!

My speed is 384kbps as that is what I pay for but.....my download speed is around 40kbps! Still better than dial up! It costs my friend I do some work for around R550 per month (+- $70) for my adsl line + 3 GB's of data...

Our fastest speed is 4mbps but costs over R1000 per month and I doubt you can download at that speed.

[Carol Haynes]

I can verify that - I live here!

My speed is 384kbps as that is what I pay for but.....my download speed is around 40kbps! Still better than dial up! It costs my friend I do some work for around R550 per month (+- $70) for my adsl line + 3 GB's of data...

Our fastest speed is 4mbps but costs over R1000 per month and I doubt you can download at that speed.

Actually slower than dial-up - I used to get 46kbps on 54k dial up service in the UK.

[CleverCat]

Here in 'Darkest Africa' things are a little different!  and there is no such thing as 'unlimited download bandwidth' like in other countries!

[f0dder]

My speed is 384kbps as that is what I pay for but.....my download speed is around 40kbps! Still better than dial up! It costs my friend I do some work for around R550 per month (+- $70) for my adsl line + 3 GB's of data...

I hope that by "40kbps" you mean kbyte and not kbit... otherwise you're getting screwed pretty bad - and 3GB data per month? Uuuugh.

[Innuendo]

When people talk about internet speeds they invariably talk about Japan, select European countries, and other places that get to bask in the glory of 50+ mbps speeds. Places like Africa are nearly never mentioned & a lot of us neglect to 'remember' how much better we have it over others and that neglect extends a lot farther than just internet speeds as well.

In a digital world full of web pages heavy with crap like Flash, Java, and other crap & even a free AV program weighs in at 80+ MB the internet is developing into a world of haves and have-nots. It's not just about having internet access anymore. One needs to have fast internet access speeds in order to function well on today's information super-highway.

I had the opportunity the other day to watch someone trying to use eBay on a dial-up connection. It was mostly an exercise in frustration with mediocre results. What should be a web site with some images, some words, and a few text input fields was a bloated, sluggish experience on a dial-up modem.

[CleverCat]

Yes kbytes - fortunately!  and yes I have to watch my downloads but on the upside if I run out I can use 10GB locally - fat lot of good that is!

[Perry Mowbray]

The story may be true, but who wants to carry a pigeon?

Somebody p-mailing the recipe of Pigeon Pie to a pie maker?

[cranioscopical]

The story may be true, but who wants to carry a pigeon?

Somebody p-mailing the recipe of Pigeon Pie to a pie maker?

Unless it was Simon I'll take that one with a pinch of salt.

[CleverCat]