Yesterday, I was flown out to Durban to witness the spectacle that was the Pigeon Race of 2009.
Now, I am no fan of rats with wings, and I have theories about their mortality, but that's a story for another place and time.
Yesterday's stunt was engineered by KwaZulu-Natal-based business The Unlimited. Essentially, the company set out to prove that local Internet connectivity is still unreliable, and the pigeon was let loose to prove it could transfer data faster than an ADSL connection.
The idea is not new, and the company openly admitted the idea was based on a tongue-in-cheek solution created by David Waitzman, on April Fools' Day, in the early 90s. It became known as IP over Avian Carrier.
The RFC Waitzman created back then looked something like this:
While The Unlimited borrowed well from the document, it actually set the pigeon in motion. Winston the pigeon has since become something of a local celebrity, since he did a full 4GB data transfer in just over two hours.
One or two?
The fact is that the race was slightly skewed and much of the real information about what actually happened has been left out.
One question I asked, which the company couldn't answer, was: “How do we know you don't have two separate pigeons?”
I only got to see the pigeon right at the end of the race, and obviously there was little to define Winston from any other pigeon.
An upgrade to a dedicated line would make the world of difference.
Candice Jones, ITWeb telecoms editor
Let's say we take it on faith that the same pigeon that took off initially was the one that landed with the data in the end. There are still problems with the race.
Firstly, the company has grown out of its position in the small business sector. It fields roughly 500 staff across its satellite call centres in KwaZulu-Natal. Even the company's IT head, Kevin Rolfe, admitted it had grown quickly over the last few months.
To connect the employees to the central hub, the company uses an ADSL connection, which - as far as I know - is considered a consumer technology. The company is not keen to invest in dedicated lines, which Telkom tells me it advised the company to do.
Many businesses in SA are sweating their technologies to save money. The thing is, if your tech is not doing what you need it to do, you upgrade, or put in the right tech. The Unlimited is looking at other options, but I think an upgrade to a dedicated line would make the world of difference.
Regulate the bird
So, Rolfe says one of the possible options would be to install its own low-frequency radio network to transfer data from branch to branch. Which, now correct me if I am wrong, would probably cost more than getting Telkom to run a dedicated line for it.
There is truth in the fact that our Internet services are not yet reliable enough, and with the rise of hosted services, these networks need to become dependable.
But, there is also something to be said about getting the right technology in place to serve your business needs. I mean, I wouldn't install a desktop machine to service 1 000 mailboxes, even if it were possible.
To be fair to The Unlimited, the ADSL line did only manage to transfer 100MB from the Howick office to the hub in Hillcrest in the same time Winston took to carry the 4GB. It was an excellent piece of publicity for the company, and it certainly has the industry talking.
Still, there are questions around whether Winston is an ICASA-approved wireless technology.
Related story:
Share