A carrier pigeon called Winston who's faster than broadband
This story is not strictly Mobile or Business but it is mobile broadband – in a way – and it amused us greatly, and we know how they feel, sometimes our mobile broadband is so slow you’d have thought it was going via carrier pigeon.
A South African business Unlimited IT based in Durban decided to pit an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest web firm, Telkom.
Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles – in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.
The idea for the race came when a member of staff at Unlimited IT complained about the speed of data transmission on ADSL.
He said it would be faster by carrier pigeon.
“We renown ourselves on being innovative, so we decided to test that statement,” Unlimited’s Kevin Rolfe told the Beeld newspaper.
Telkom said it was not responsible for the firm’s slow internet speeds. Well they would wouldn’t they.
Find out more about Winston and his training and preparation see the official website www.pigeonrace2009.co.za