Pigeon flies past broadband in data speed race

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Pigeon flies past broadband in data speed race

My local TV tonight

HuskyPup

12:45 am on Sep 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

Broadband is the most modern of communication means, while carrier pigeons date back to Roman times.

But on Thursday, a race between the two highlighted the low speeds of rural broadband in the UK; the pigeon won.

[bbc.co.uk...]

lammert

2:10 am on Sep 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

Doesn't seem to be an equal comparison. Broadband, or even dialup allows to download data from every location in the world at roughly the same speed, while pigeons only have limited reach.

And Internet has automatic switch over facilities if a route fails. What happens if a hunter shoots the pigeon and serves it at dinner to his family? All those GBs are probably lost forever.

bhonda

9:38 am on Sep 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

I'm sure this kind of thing has been done before, proving the same point elsewhere in the world.

I agree that it's hardly a fair test, but it makes a good point - compared to some places, our broadband isn't as good as it could be.

One cause of frustration where I work (a web-based development company), is that our Internet connection is so poor, that, for large data transfers, it is literally quicker to download the data to a USB stick, jump in the car, and drive to our data centre on the other side of the county.

Although I've never done that. I'd much rather have a brew and wait it out!

piatkow

9:44 am on Sep 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

Pigeon is quicker when uploading a 300meg file to a data centre 120km away.

This hasn't taken into account the time needed to train the pigeon to home on the destination and sending it to the uploader's location.

LifeinAsia

3:28 pm on Sep 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

It also doesn't take into account the utter lack of security on pigeon-NET. Hackers can easily intercept packets and replace with their own malware.

Pigeon-NET also has its own versions of viruses- remember the Avian Flu.

On the plus side- pigeon-NET bugs actually help keep the network going.

piatkow

8:41 am on Sep 19, 2010 (gmt 0)

I once had to deliver an urgent USB stick because the file was too large to upload. From the office it constituted a full day but as I lived half way there I had a nice afternoon to myself.