Pigeon or Internet: What’s Faster?
You may be surprised at the answer. In this case, a carrier pigeon was the undisputed winner in a race to move 4 GB of data between two towns. Unlimited Group, an IT company tired of struggling to use the Internet in South Africa, staged the race. The pigeon, Winston, flew between two of the company’s offices carrying a data drive with 4 GB of data. He flew 60 miles in about 2 hours according to the BBC. Only 4 percent of the data was transferred over the Internet in the same timeframe!
This report offers yet another reason why I’m glad to live in North America — fast Internet speeds. The US ranks 17th on the International Telecommunication Union’s list of countries with the best Internet and communication technologies. South America ranks 87th. Surprisingly, Sweden and South Korea are at the top of the list.
Carrier pigeons have been used for many years to carry messages. According to The Hallowed History of the Carrier Pigeon, “The first message-bearing pigeon was loosed by Noah. The ancient Romans used pigeons for chariot races, to tell owners how their entries had placed. Genghis Khan established pigeon relay posts across and Asia and much of Eastern Europe.” Pigeons were also used during both WWI and WWII. They are even used today to carry blood samples from remote regions of Britain and France.
I was surprised to learn how important these birds have been throughout history. What’s even more surprising is that, even with the rise of the Internet, they are still the fastest way to transfer information in some countries. Who knew?
