Faster Than DSL

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Atkinson, Robert" <rca53 () columbia edu>
Date: September 9, 2009 6:20:42 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Faster Than DSL

Dave,

I wonder if BIP/BTOP grants are available for this innovative means  
for moving data faster than DSL?  Probably less costly as well, as  
long as the carrier is  duplex (i.e., can get back to base on its own)

Bob


Pigeon Beats Telkom South Africa in Data Race, Sapa Reports

By Nicky Smith

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- A racing pigeon called Winston carrying four  
gigabytes of data strapped to its leg beat Telkom South Africa Ltd. <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=TKG%3ASJ 
> ’s ADSL data service download time by flying from Howick in South  
Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal province to Durban, Sapa reported.

The flight took an hour and eight minutes, the agency said citing  
Kevin Rolfe, the head of information technology company, The Unlimited  
IT. In total it took just under three hours for the bird to fly to the  
port city of Durban and have the data uploaded onto the call center’s  
system, Sapa said.

In the same amount of time the ADSL transmission of the same data size  
had only completed 4 percent of its upload, the news agency said. The  
11-month old pigeon’s progress had been slowed by overcast and rainy  
conditions, Sapa said. Winston was “over the moon” about his  
achievement, according to Rolfe, Sapa reported.

The idea for the race was born out of the frustration of an Unlimited  
IT staff member at the long transmission time for data, Sapa said.  
Pynee Chetty, a spokesman for Telkom, said he couldn’t immediately  
comment, when called by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicky Smith <http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Nicky+Smith&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1 
>  in Johannesburg at nsmith38 () bloomberg net

Last Updated: September 9, 2009 11:23 EDT




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com