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itnews@itweb.co.za | sales@itweb.co.za | Wed, 9 Sep 2009 |
IP over avian carrier
The unlikely celebrity pigeon, Winston, outpaced an ADSL connection in a 4GB data transfer across 80km in KwaZulu-Natal today.
Local call centre business, The Unlimited, set out to display how unreliable local data connections are in the area. The company settled on Winston the homing pigeon to transfer the data on a memory stick strapped to his leg, while a simultaneous download of equal size was run across an ADSL line.
Including upload and download of the data to the card, Winston's data transfer took a total time of two hours, six minutes, and 57 seconds, while the ADSL line transferred 100MB in the same time.
The Unlimited's IT head, Kevin Rolfe, says the company frequently has trouble transferring data between its call centre hub in Hillcrest and its various satellite centres within KwaZulu-Natal. The company fields 500 seats across its various call centre stations, which are connected via ADSL.
According to the company, it can't yet afford to upgrade to dedicated lines, which would allow it more security on the line quality. “We also only transfer about 5GB of data in total per week, which does not warrant a bigger connection.”
However, Telkom says it has consulted with The Unlimited on the current connectivity it is using. Executive of business sales and solutions at Telkom, Troy Hector, says: “Several recommendations have, in the past, been made to the customer, but none of these have to date been accepted. It must also be noted that Telkom is not the customer's core service provider.”
Internet Solutions (IS), which is a confirmed service provider for The Unlimited, says: “This exercise only identifies the levels that local broadband users will go to in order to prove that we still have a while to go before we have real broadband in the country.”
IS broadband business unit manager, Royden Dall, notes that while Seacom offers Africa access to more bandwidth, if a bottleneck exists in the network, “pigeons will still be faster”.
“And don't forget that many a truth is said in jest, and it really is about time we had a local network that could support true high-speed data transfer,” he adds.
The Unlimited says it will most likely not use the pigeon method as its primary communication system. Instead, Rolfe states the company is looking into several other options, including installing its own radio frequency network to handle the branch capacity.
POST YOUR COMMENT
Comments (10)
MF
said:
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You have no idea what you`re talking about XG. ADSL is run over Telkom`s copper last-mile network, i.e. the telephone wires you have running into your home and/or office. It is a contended service, meaning that even if you have a 4096Kb/s downlink speed, you`re sharing it with as many as 20 other customers at the same time during peak usage periods. The internet caps that Menace refers to have nothing to do with this exercise - Unlimited were battling with office-to-office transfers, not internet downloads or uploads. If they`re using an ADSL-based VPN then internet caps don`t even come into it. This is a gimmick, but a clever one - kudos to Unlimited for a clever marketing trick. I do agree though that a company running a 500-seat call centre should not relying on ADSL connections for business-critical office-to-office data communication needs. |
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JM
said:
| Balls. Each centre has an ADSL line. And to convert each one to business line will cost a fortune. | |
TechnologyStudent
said:
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ADSL is good for retail stuff. I find it astonishing that South Africa makes such a big noise about ADSL prices for the following points: ADSL is mostly used for -porn downloading -Illegal downloading -and gambling. ADSL is not meant for businesses. Any business that thinks a 500 seat call centre can survive on an ADSL line is stupid. PS Please indicate where ADSL is run over Fibre. ADSL is run over copper!!! |
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TechnologyStudent
said:
|
ADSL is good for retail stuff. I find it astonishing that South Africa makes such a big noise about ADSL prices for the following points: ADSL is mostly used for -porn downloading -Illegal downloading -and gambling. ADSL is not meant for businesses. Any business that thinks a 500 seat call centre can survive on an ADSL line is stupid. PS Please indicate where ADSL is run over Fibre. ADSL is run over copper!!! |
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XG
said:
| i agree, he doesn`t know what he`s talking about. adsl is run over fiber and/or sat systems, even if you go through mtn, voda or any other service, you still need to go through telkom eventually. it`s not the technology, it`s the cost and speed that were tested in this excercise. ps. i hate the cap on adsl, hence no caps in this response ;-) pps. it`s still cheaper to fly to japan, download a dvd movie, rip it to disk and fly back (faster too). | |
DRG
said:
| The fact that there are other means of transporting data does not mean that consumers (business or private) should accept poor reliability via ADSL. The fact that there are more expensive cars out there does not mean that cheaper ones should be any less reliable. | |
Tish
said:
| Typical comment from todays know it all technology junkie kid.. Try to see the wood for the trees. Our generation invented your utopia, and even we can appreciate the tongue in cheek excercise. Rookie!! Not everything is about technology, why cant you see that??? | |
Menace
said:
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Can we please focus on the REAL issue of why broadband in this country sucks: It is not the bandwidth thats the problem, as it is the nature of a redundant IP network to have fluctuations in point-to-pont throughput - but rather the CAPS! We are getting robbed by paying through our eyeballs for measly portions of data - why - just the data Winston was carrying is worth R50/Gb x 4Gb = R200 = The price of the stick that was holding the data in the first place. Im sure Telkom is trying to keep us in the never ending loop of bandwidth arguments when the real argument is that we pay on average 20x more per GB of data than the rest of the world. THATS THE PROBLEM! |
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CJ
said:
| Every wise business person not to run a business on ADSL...if you’re dedicated to your customers, you would invest in reliable dedicated access means!!! | |
Technology Student
said:
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This is stupid. And ADSL connection by nature, in most countries, first world or not, is a contended services. Telkom, Voacom, MTN, etc offer Fibre and Diginet services. This cheap company doesn't want to invest, so they pose this gimmick. What size was the ADSL line? Its a stupid network architecture to have 500 seats using one ADSL line. They should get at least a 2 Mbps Assured Rate line (Diginet, Microwave or Fibre). If they wanna fly pigeons let them, but know this is a gimmick. |
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