Race Pits Pigeons Against Poor UK Rural Broadband 298
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."
Re:What is your name? What is your quest? (Score:4, Interesting)
1 bit per swallow, unless being painted/dyed doesn't count as being laden.
because it's a "right" (Score:3, Interesting)
... like health care.
I live in a rural area about 10 minutes from a commuter town which is about 20 minutes from a city of a ~1mil... my broadband is pretty bad. It's line of sight wireless and it's $70/mo for 512k/256k (384 down for $50).
I'm not complaining, I do know where I live and I knew the limitations. But the "pft, move to town, stupid" argument only works if people are not convinced that it's their "right" to have broadband access. With all the recent talk about broadband being like electricity and how we should give everyone access to affordable broadband, etc... I'm not convinced that people realize there are still tradeoffs in life.
It's somewhat similar to health care, too. You don't want to pay for my broadband services due to MY choice of where I live. I don't want to pay for your unhealthy eating habits due to YOUR choice of what you eat.
Of course, there are exceptions all over the place, but you know.
And by the way, us rural folks don't always appreciate those city folks that go live in the "country" ... and then build their multi-million dollar homes with huge lawns (and deep wells to water their huge lawns which they pay gardeners to cut and take away the clippings, as opposed to like ... raising, I don't know, animals on it ...), buy tons of land to do nothing with, etc. But then again, it's a free country, and I'm glad they are just as free to do that as I am to live on it.
Unless, of course, the EPA gets involved because there's an endangered frog that lives on your property. ;)
Re:African or European? (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe the pidgeon would beat the station wagon as it doesn't have to stop signs, other driver, traffic speeds, and bad maps to follow.
Re:African or European? (Score:3, Interesting)
Indeed. It's also not quite as secure; usually, when you drop packets, you don't have to worry about someone else picking them up. Talk about "man in the middle"...
Re:Pigeon bandwidth is high (Score:3, Interesting)
MicroSD Cards =>
LTO Drive =>