Godspeed bird-speed in South Africa


Posted on September 11, 2009  /  1 Comments

Bird-band has outpaced Broadband when a South African technology outfit named Unlimited IT has proved 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, BBC reports. The 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km (50 miles) from Unlimited IT’s offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.

Whereas, including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds — the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using Telkom’s ADSL. 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.

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