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Race Pits Pigeons Against Poor UK Rural Broadband

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the heard-this-before dept.

Mark.JUK writes "Rural internet access in the United Kingdom, like many other countries around the world, is slow. So slow in fact that Trefor Davies, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at business ISP Timico, has decided to pit a typical rural broadband connection against homing pigeons (with attached memory cards) to see which can get 200MB of HD video data across an 84 mile trip the fastest. Meanwhile a farmer will attempt to upload the same video file to YouTube before the pigeons can complete their journey. The comical stunt is designed to raise awareness of the often woeful broadband speed experienced by many people who live in remote and rural parts of their country. However Davies does admit that 'there isn't a benchmark for pigeon data speeds,' yet."

8 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. African or European? by paintballer1087 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are these African or European pigeons?

    1. Re:African or European? by DrgnDancer · · Score: 4, Funny

      To be fair, Pigeon Protocol may be high bandwidth, but the latency is terrible. And Gods forbid you miss a packet.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    2. Re:African or European? by yabba-dabba-do · · Score: 3, Funny

      As someone who has been the Man In The Middle of a pigeon's dropped packet, I can tell you it is not a pleasant experience.

  2. Ping times? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I bet they're lousy for gaming.

  3. What is your name? What is your quest? by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is the bandwidth capacity of an unladen swallow?

  4. No standard for pigeon data speeds? by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's an RFC for it!

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  5. Re:Obligatory IP Over Avian Carriers RFC by hesiod · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, and another implementation of carrier pigeon data transfer, now in South Africa. Kinda blows that "there isn't a benchmark for pigeon data speeds" statement away...

  6. They don't even mention the biggest advantage by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Funny

    With the internet you just get a movie, but with the pigeon you get both a movie AND dinner delivered to your door. Talk about convenience.

    --
    Monstar L