Pigeon transfers data faster than S. Africa's service provider

[Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster () gmail com>]

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — A South African information technology company
on Wednesday proved that it was faster for them to transmit data with a
carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom, the country's leading Internet
service provider.

Internet speed and connectivity in Africa's largest economy are poor
because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.

Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one
hour and eight minutes to fly the 50 miles from Unlimited IT's offices near
Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was
strapped to his leg.

Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57
seconds — the time it took for only 4% of the data to be transferred
using a Telkom line.

SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with
slow internet transmission times.

The company has 11 call-centers around the country and regularly sends data
to its other branches.

Telkom could not immediately be reached for comment.

Internet speed is expected to improve once a 17,000 km underwater fiber
optic cable linking southern and East Africa to other networks becomes
operational before South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup next year.

Local service providers are currently negotiating deals for more bandwidth.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-09-09-pigeon-faster_N.htm

- - ferg

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-- 
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawgster(at)gmail.com
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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