Pigeon transmits data faster than leading South African internet provider

Here's a sure-fire way to get noticed: take an overly trite expression and apply it literally to your complaint. Case in point: Unlimited IT, so exasperated by South Africa's leading supplier of slow internet connectivity that it pitted a Telkom ADSL line against a real-live homing pigeon in a 60-mile data transmission race. The pigeon arrived with the 4GB memory stick in just over an hour with another hour required to load the data onto the computer. As for Telkom? Well, after 2 hours it had barely reached 4%. Point made.

[Thanks, Ugotamesij]

[jedidove Posted Sep 10th 2009 11:33AM]

ramble ramble ramble [insert monty python joke] ramble ramble

[Ricardo Posted Sep 10th 2009 11:47AM]

PigeoNet FTY!

[Prestwick Posted Sep 10th 2009 12:03PM]

Maybe Telkom should hire South Africa Rugby Coach Peter de Villiers as head of PR. That guy can bullsh*t better than all spin doctors put together.

"Vell, ve may be slow,ja? But Telkom ADSL is so awesome it scares me, ja? If you don't like it then go buy a tutu"

I rest my case.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 12:42PM]

Sounds like a successful test of the CPIP, AKA RFC1149. http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/

[DanielT Posted Sep 10th 2009 12:43PM]

Pigeonet

"Let Your Info Fly"

[John22s Posted Sep 10th 2009 1:31PM]

must be a branch of an American cellular company.

[Poem58 Posted Sep 10th 2009 1:34PM]

Maybe they can use Navajo Pigeons for encryption.

[Milk Money Posted Sep 10th 2009 1:58PM]

I think there's a mistake in the article - 60 miles is really 60 km. According to that trusted tome of knowledge *Wikipedia*, an average flight speed for a homing pigeon is about 48 kph (30 mph), and for short bursts they can get to 95 kph (59 mph). The kph seems like the right units...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 2:08PM]

did it say if the 4GB stick was full of data? I guess it was... but how often does anyone use aDSL to move a 4 gigabyte (not megabyte) amount of data? Email servers often get angry dealing with 5mb-10mb worth of data in one piece. Anything bigger than that usually requires ftp servers or sharing data with CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or memory stick type applications (at least in the business I'm involved in)

[w1ntermute0 Posted Sep 10th 2009 2:48PM]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet but 4% of 4gb in 2 hours comes out to about 178kbps.. Basically three times as fast as a 57k modem..

[fourblades Posted Sep 10th 2009 4:32PM]

I think the turtles from Comcast commercials found their new internet service provider!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 4:35PM]

What was the latency for the DSL? Pigeon's ping was 7.2million ms would people really settle for this?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 11th 2009 7:24AM]

biggest surprise is that pigeon didn't get hijacked, robbed & raped (south africas national sports)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 12th 2009 5:26AM]

May be we should start using Torrent Pigeons ...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 18th 2009 3:48PM]

Genius. The best part is truly that the pigeon was indeed faster than South African ADSL line. Kind of depressing, but this makes such a great point. Hopefully, the government will take some heed and not just notice the pigeon story. Hopefully, they actually do something about the incredibly sluggish internet/cable throughout the country. Otherwise, Unlimited IT (as well as other businesses) might have to permanently switch to the pigeon.
I watched a short, but well-made video on the whole pigeon/internet affair at newsy.com earlier today. The video gives a little context to the story and cites a few different sources/viewpoints. It's worth watching if you have just a couple of minutes:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/the_pigeon_and_the_internet