Pigeon Transfers Data Faster Than South Africa’s Telkom

A South African information technology company proved it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom, the country’s leading internet service provider. Internet speed and connectivity in Africa’s largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive. Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km from Unlimited IT’s offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg. Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds — the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line. SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times