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Pigeon Beats ISP in 60-Mile Data Delivery Race

by Warren Riddle on September 11, 2009 at 07:25 AM

Last week, in an epic showdown between nature and technology, science barely edged out Mother Earth to claim global supremacy. And, reportedly, it only took a lonely carrier pigeon in South Africa two hours to even the odds.

According to BBC reports, an exasperated employee for Durban's Unlimited IT spurred the pigeon to action after the man frustratingly mentioned that data transmission "would be faster by carrier pigeon" than with Internet provider Telkom's DSL service. The Unlimited team drafted Winston the pigeon to test the statement, so they dispatched him, with a 4 GB memory stick, on a 60-mile race against technology.

Winston arrived at his destination in 1:08 hours (60 mph?!), and the waiting Unlimited IT pit crew took another hour to upload the data on the memory stick. During that two-hour period, a paltry 4-percent of the same amount of data had been transferred through DSL.

Telkom would not accept fault for the dismally slow speeds, but something should be done to address the problem before next summer, when South Africa will host the World Cup. If not, local police won't just have to deal with rowdy soccer hooligans, they'll have to quell roving mobs of frustrated, rioting sports reporters, too. [From: BBC and Engadget]

Tags: animals, carrier pigeon, CarrierPigeon, DSL, funny, nature, South Africa, SouthAfrica, Telkom, top

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