# South Africa: Pigeon faster than Internet



## Cuzza (Sep 10, 2009)

Lol, check this out!

_Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery - but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom.

Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data. _

source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8248056.stm


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## Triprift (Sep 10, 2009)

Lol i posted that in Gn makes me feel so happy im here in Oz.


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 10, 2009)

Silly article.

Most European ADSL services would struggle to provide *4GB* in under 60 minutes.

In fact (in UK), most providers of consumer ADSL would have a cap between 2GB and 5GB *per month* before extra charges need to be paid.

And WHAT exactly do these Africans want to download that is 4GB large? 8 pirate movies? You mean, they want to download them because to RIP 8 movies would take MUCH LONGER than 60 minutes.

BBC journalist needs to be fired for wasting everyones time and FUD.


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## Deleted member 3 (Sep 10, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> And WHAT exactly do these Africans want to download that is 4GB large? 8 pirate movies? You mean, they want to download them because to RIP 8 movies would take MUCH LONGER than 60 minutes.



Africans don't download pirate movies, they make them themselves out on the seas using their phone cameras.


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## skylamer (Sep 10, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Africans don't download pirate movies, they make them themselves out on the seas using their phone cameras.



ahahahahahahahahahaha niceO*NE !*


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## Cuzza (Sep 10, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> Silly article.
> 
> Most European ADSL services would struggle to provide *4GB* in under 60 minutes.



True. it doesn't actually say however that they were trying to transmit 4gb, just that they used a 4gb stick. it is a crap article, but amusing nonetheless. should have put it in GN i suppose.


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 10, 2009)

Seriously, what do they want with 4GB of data on their old second hand windows 3.1, 8Gb HDD 386/486 charity skool computer cast-offs? Perhaps they want the bandwidth to try and multi-hack bank accounts, or to send EVEN MORE Nigeria scam emails. I say the 1st World should BAN ADSL internet access in Africa... or at least implement pay-per-email.

This (intended to be comic) rhetoric has been "reported" as racist. Apologies to the person that was offended. There was no intention to be _racist _in any way. Apologies for inferring that some people in Africa use second hand PCs and/or dont have the latest equipment and/or software and/or have used their PCs for unscrupulous activities and/or are using Windows and not Apple Macs and OSX when in fact they might be.*

* Note that his apology is not limited in any way to _only _the use second hand PCs and/or dont have the latest equipment and/or software and/or have used their PCs for unscrupulous activities and/or are using Windows and not Apple Macs and OSX when in fact they might be, but shall also include apology for any other combination of words and phrases that can be construed from the above.  However, the apology does not include third party liability. If by association of words you recall somebody else's comment that was found to be offensive in any way, then this association is the result of your own projection and is your problem alone to deal with and your psychologist can give you advice on which medication may assist you in managing your emotional response.


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## Mussels (Sep 10, 2009)

outside of america, very few ISP's have upload speeds great enough for a 4GB file transfer.

I'm on adsl2+ here in aus (fastest you can get, realy), and its theoretical best is 24Mb down and 1Mb up. - 100KB/s aint getting you very far with large files.


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 10, 2009)

Well thats like saying I walked across the street to my neighbors house and transferred 16GB of data in less than 3 min just by carrying my Flash Drive, of course its faster!!! Thats like ubber download speeds right there. My fiber optics hasn't even touched 10 MB loL!


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## Deleted member 3 (Sep 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> outside of america, very few ISP's have upload speeds great enough for a 4GB file transfer.
> 
> I'm on adsl2+ here in aus (fastest you can get, realy), and its theoretical best is 24Mb down and 1Mb up. - 100KB/s aint getting you very far with large files.
> 
> ...



Yes, America internet be great.







From speedtest.net (automatically highlights your own country)


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## phanbuey (Sep 10, 2009)

look at those eastern europe upload speeds.   Makes me wonder what they are uploading.


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## skylamer (Sep 10, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman, yeah man, but that's the avarage speed for whole country ;// if Bulgaria is there with only avr speed from Sofia(then we'll be in top3) and i' am sure of this



p.s. because only a few the other cities outside of Sofia have similiar/good i-net


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## Deleted member 3 (Sep 10, 2009)

skylamer said:


> DanTheBanjoman, yeah man, but that's the avarage speed for whole country ;// if Bulgaria is there with only avr speed from Sofia(then we'll be in top3) and i' am sure of this



Those are averages. Those high speed lines often do up to 50-100Mbit/s, if you look at those numbers they're probably pulling them that high, but it's clear that most of the country doesn't enjoy such speeds. That basically goes for all those high ranked countries, several areas with extremely high speed, rest is just average or below. Either way, America isn't exactly high speed internet country #1 as Mussels basically suggested.



phanbuey said:


> look at those eastern europe upload speeds.   Makes me wonder what they are uploading.



Food recipes and beauty tips.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 10, 2009)

This article is stupid, because obviously everyone involved doesn't realize how *A*DSL works.

Your upload speed is always complete crap compared to your download speed, that is the whole idea of ADSL.  You get good download speeds, but only enough upload to keep the connection moving and handle handshakes and such.  

I'll give an example: A common speed in the USA is 6Mb/s Download and 512Kb/s Upload.  So if someone with that connection wants to send a 4GB file, they get trasfer speeds of only 64KB/s!  Do the math:  A 4GB file is 4,194,304KB.  So to transfer that file it would take 65,536 Seconds, or 1,092.266 Minutes, or 18 Hours!  In 1 hours, you would transfer about 5.5% of the 4GB file.  And that is on a US connection, assuming perfect conditions and 100% throughput(which never happens).  And there are slower connections than that, most ADSL users in the US use lower plans than that.  Usually in the 256Kb/s upload range.

ADSL is not meant for sending files back and forth, it is mean for primarily downloading.  If they wanted to send files back and forth across an internet connect, you have to pay for an internet connection that offers better upload rates.  That is why ADSL@6Mb/512Kb is cheap, while a T1@1.5Mb/1.5Mb is a lot more expensive...


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## Mussels (Sep 10, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> This article is stupid, because obviously everyone involved doesn't realize how *A*DSL works.
> 
> Your upload speed is always complete crap compared to your download speed, that is the whole idea of ADSL.  You get good download speeds, but only enough upload to keep the connection moving and handle handshakes and such.
> 
> ...



yup yup, more detailed version of what i said.

they could DOWNLOAD 4GB fairly fast, but upload is another thing.


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## KainXS (Sep 10, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Those are averages. Those high speed lines often do up to 50-100Mbit/s, if you look at those numbers they're probably pulling them that high, but it's clear that most of the country doesn't enjoy such speeds. That basically goes for all those high ranked countries, several areas with extremely high speed, rest is just average or below. Either way, America isn't exactly high speed internet country #1 as Mussels basically suggested.
> 
> 
> 
> Food recipes and beauty tips.



yes americas speed isn't the best but for now there aren't many isps that cap you even now, every month I download like, I don't know 100GB-200GB with no prob with my crap ISP

mainly because I store my HDD's online and always wipe my pc and need to redownload all that stuff


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 10, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Yes, America internet be great.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/090910/Capture088.jpg
> 
> From speedtest.net (automatically highlights your own country)


I didn't realize South Korea had such average upload speed.


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## Mussels (Sep 10, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I didn't realize South Korea had such average upload speed.



how else do you think they play starcraft 24/7?


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 10, 2009)

I meant average as in medicore as in slow compared to the download. XD  I knew South Korea had the highest download speeds by far but they have an achilles heel too which is kinda silly for a state-wide system.

I'm lucky I can get ADSL at all.


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## Triprift (Sep 10, 2009)

I just checked oz 41 for dls and 69 for ul thats sad.


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## Easo (Sep 10, 2009)

phanbuey said:


> look at those eastern europe upload speeds.   Makes me wonder what they are uploading.



Should i realy tell you?


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## Deleted member 3 (Sep 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> how else do you think they play starcraft 24/7?



Laggy, like I used to do many years ago


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## Mussels (Sep 10, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Laggy, like I used to do many years ago



i saw a guy at respawn (450 person lan) a few weeks back, and someone was playing starcraft... and lagging.

i have no idea what the hell he was doing at a lan with a PC that old.


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 10, 2009)

I think we are agreed: BBC reporter needs to fall on sword for APPAULING ARTICLE


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## 3870x2 (Sep 10, 2009)

wow.  This is retarded.  So, im faster than both of them! ill pack 40 2TB hard drives in my backpack, hike the distance in a day or so, while the bird could only carry its thumb drives back and forth, getting about 300GB in thumb drives while I can get 80TB! wow, I'm fast!


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## Deleted member 3 (Sep 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i saw a guy at respawn (450 person lan) a few weeks back, and someone was playing starcraft... and lagging.
> 
> i have no idea what the hell he was doing at a lan with a PC that old.



Well, he was doing starcraft, you just said so.


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## Easy Rhino (Sep 11, 2009)

AphexDreamer said:


> Well thats like saying I walked across the street to my neighbors house and transferred 16GB of data in less than 3 min just by carrying my Flash Drive, of course its faster!!! Thats like ubber download speeds right there. My fiber optics hasn't even touched 10 MB loL!


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## Velvet Wafer (Sep 11, 2009)

if i wanted to, i can get up to 50mbit down, 3or 4 mbit up... in germany, most of the people use 16mbit today. everywhere in the country.


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## Xazax (Sep 11, 2009)

A key fact is missing.  is the pc a MAC or Windows?  if windows  are you sure that the PC has the correct drivers to open the flash card?  That bird may have to make a return trip to get the CD for the right drivers first  and I believe a CD is a bit heaver so it is again 'a simple matter of weight ratios'


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## Mussels (Sep 11, 2009)

Xazax said:


> A key fact is missing.  is the pc a MAC or Windows?  if windows  are you sure that the PC has the correct drivers to open the flash card?  That bird may have to make a return trip to get the CD for the right drivers first  and I believe a CD is a bit heaver so it is again 'a simple matter of weight ratios'



drivers, for flash media?

they may be outdated, but that just means XP like the rest of the world.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Sep 11, 2009)

windows 3.11 ftw


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## BradleyKZN (Sep 15, 2009)

Lol I hope you are all being sarcastic about Africa...  Well, South Africa anyway


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## DaedalusHelios (Sep 15, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Yes, America internet be great.



The CIA info estimates:

223,000,000 internet users in the USA. (307,212,123 total population.) 72.59%

247,000,000 internet users in the whole European Union. (491,582,852 total population.) 50.25%

Internet access could be measured by a percentage of the populous thats actually connected, or the amount of users.

Of course the _percentage of users _in the Netherlands is far greater than in the USA and EU as a whole, simply due to its population density and prosperity.


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## Frick (Sep 15, 2009)

Mussels said:


> outside of america, very few ISP's



Naahhh, Europe is pretty good to. Don't know about Asia..


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## newtekie1 (Sep 15, 2009)

DaedalusHelios said:


> The CIA info estimates:
> 
> 223,000,000 internet users in the USA. (307,212,123 total population.) 72.59%
> 
> ...



I think it could also be measured in average speed per square mile of area.  Look at the USA, it is huge compared to a lot of other countries.  I don't think it is a quincidence that the countries with the fastest internet access, are also some of the smallest.

It is a lot easier to install and maintain a high speed internet infrastructure in a country like Japan(145,883 sq mi) or the Netherlands(16,033 sq mi) than it is in the US(3,794,066 sq mi).


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## Easy Rhino (Sep 15, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> I think it could also be measured in average speed per square mile of area.  Look at the USA, it is huge compared to a lot of other countries.  I don't think it is a quincidence that the countries with the fastest internet access, are also some of the smallest.
> 
> It is a lot easier to install and maintain a high speed internet infrastructure in a country like Japan(145,883 sq mi) or the Netherlands(16,033 sq mi) than it is in the US(3,794,066 sq mi).



don't forget that those countries have their governments subsidize the internet is some way so the people are paying WAY more (through taxation) for internet than we are in the USA.


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## DaedalusHelios (Sep 16, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> don't forget that those countries have their governments subsidize the internet is some way so the people are paying WAY more (through taxation) for internet than we are in the USA.



Most internet infrastructure in the USA was paid for with public funds if we are talking about cable internet. Cities that created their own to be free for all citizens, had their state legislature make them hand it over to the private sector for free. It was the result of big business lobbyists.


Private sector is not always the best solution. I do think the US governement shouldn't be a television provider though.


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## Easy Rhino (Sep 16, 2009)

DaedalusHelios said:


> Most internet infrastructure in the USA was paid for with public funds if we are talking about cable internet. Cities that created their own to be free for all citizens, had their state legislature make them hand it over to the private sector for free. It was the result of big business lobbyists.
> 
> 
> Private sector is not always the best solution. I do think the US governement shouldn't be a television provider though.



yea and those cities have terrible internet service plus they are few and far between. you may also be talking about city ordinences which award a company the right to lay infrastruture in that jurasdiction because they city doesnt want their roads torn up a hundred times by competing companies. im talking about private industry paying labor to lay cable and research new technology to deliver a better product at a lower cost. in europe they use public funds and city planners to design an infrastructure. it is ultimately way more expensive.


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## BradleyKZN (Sep 16, 2009)

One thing that article doesn't say is that government internet could have done that job in about 2 hours! Now that the seacom cable has been installed we should all be seeing 4MBPS connections fairly soon


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## Triprift (Sep 16, 2009)

Im happy when i see stuff like this as it confirms that no matter how bad Oz broadband is theres places worse alla South Africa yay.


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## Mussels (Sep 16, 2009)

holy  crap, did you know i'm faster than the internet in australia? i just walked 2KM with a 1TB HDD, and had barely uploaded 20MB in the time it took me!

ZOMGZ!


(sorry, had to say it...)


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## Triprift (Sep 16, 2009)

Thats amazing Mussels u dererve a cookie & cream


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## MK4512 (Oct 21, 2009)

Wow, you guys get crazy download speeds! Top I've hit is about 200kb/s...

Maybe its because I haven't downloaded anything since I forwarded my ports, maybe that will make a difference... But no where near to 1 MB/s...

(BTW: I am in Canada...)


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## i789 (Oct 27, 2009)

pigeons may get shot down by AK47 bullets, so the delivery time is greatly exaggerated


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