Need Faster Internet? Try Carrier Pigeon

Imagine that you had a bunch of files that you wanted to get from you to a customer.  With the speed of Internet connections evolving 3 times slower than storage media, are there faster alternatives than the Internet for moving files around?

What if a more traditional means was already available?  What about the humble carrier pigeon?

Although this might sound a little crazy, for thousands of years from early antiquity to the electrical telegraph in the 19th century, the pigeon was the fastest means of communication available.

Working the numbers

An article posted on low-tech magazine explains the maths behind it.

A well trained contemporary carrier pigeon can maintain a speed of 50 kilometres an hour (31 mph) over a distance of 600 kilometres (373 miles), and carry a weight of 1 gram. More ‘freight’ is possible, but then the performance goes down.

A payload of only 1g sounds quite wimpy, until you take the 32gb memory card out of your mobile phone and stick it on the scales (don’t try that at home!).  The article continues…

Compared to a fibre connection, the pigeon has to surrender quite fast. This internet connection only needs 2.6 minutes to send 2 gigabytes. A carrier pigeon only flies 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) far in that time. A carrier pigeon is thus faster than a fibre connection when the distance is shorter than 2 kilometres or 1.2 miles.

A broadband connection needs 4 hours to send 2 gigabytes, while the pigeon can reach a distance of 200 kilometres (125 miles) in 4 hours.  This means that sending 2 gigabytes of information from Amsterdam to Brussels goes faster by carrier pigeon than by a fast broadband connection.

Putting it in Practice

If all you have is a standard broadband connection and you really need faster Internet access; whilst one option is do a Bing on how to train a carrier pigeon, the other is to come and talk to us about Ethernet and Leased Line connectivity.

Bespoke Computing Ltd sources and manages uncontended Ethernet and Leased Line circuits from multiple carriers, ensuring the most appropriate service for your requirement.  Circuits are available at speeds between 2Mbps and 10Gbps with service level agreements and backup options.

If this sounds like something you’d like to know more about, give us a call on 0845 004 3025.  Alternatively email your contact details to sales@bespokecomputing.com and we’ll call you.