Intersting email recieved:
Hi Guys/Gals
We are having a bit of fun at the expense of our favourite
telecoms provider Helkom. Let me explain. We have satellite call
centres which are connected via business ADSL's to our main data
centre. As usual these connections where very unstable and
extremely slow. This caused a huge amount of frustration for us as
we need to move voice logs(100's of megabytes) a day up to our main
databases for QA and legal purposes. Our company runs on sales and
without voice logs we have no binding contract between us and the
customer. So they are pretty essential.
Anyway I read a Aprils fools white paper about Avian carrier
networks a couple of years ago. Basically it is a protocol that
uses racing pigeons as a network layer. This got me thinking about
how fast we can transfer the data by racing pigeon. I discussed
this idea with my CIO one night having a couple of drinks. When we
did the math we found out that we can transfer the data faster by
pigeon for certain sites. So we made a project of it. Next week
Wednesday is Pigeon VS ADSL day here at the unlimited world. We
have the media involved so check the Sunday times for a article on
this event.
Basically we will be flying a pigeon with a 4GB micro SD card
from Howick to our central site in Hillcrest. We did a dry run
yesterday. Here is the stats: Pigeon took 48 minutes to deliver the
data. ADSL is still downloading. Telkom got hold of this via the
media and is currently in a flat spin. We got a call from Telkom
asking us for our circuit numbers so they can make sure we have
good service.
Here is the best part. We spend +/- R 45000 a month just on
rental for these lines. If we moved to the Avian Carrier Network we
will be saving a whopping R 35 000 a month.
Check out the facebook group, do a search for Winston the pigeon
on facebook. Also watch the local press for some tongue in cheek
articles about our great Helkom.
Links:
http://www.facebook.com/Winston.the.Pigeon
http://www.theunlimitedgroup.com/flying-in-the-face-of-data
http://www.pigeonrace2009.co.za/
http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/1bc8b09e39b043928317dc769d4196e4/09-09-2009-12-23/Pigeon_beats_Telkom