Australian internet fails pigeon test

A pigeon has transferred a 700 megabyte file faster than a car or a Telstra ADSL internet connection in rural Australia.

The bizarre experiment, conducted in rural New South Wales, was prompted by a comment by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Parliament last week whilst attacking the Liberal Party for its opposition to the bill that proposed to split Telstra.

"If the Liberals had their way Australians would be left using carrier pigeons for the future rather than accessing an internationally competitive broadband network," Rudd said.

ABC television's Hungry Beast program thought they'd take Rudd up on his challenge.

The hosts noted a similar test that had been done in South Africa where an IT company tested their own internet speeds by replacing it with a carrier pigeon. The pigeon won.

"Surely our internet speeds are faster than a pigeon," asked co-host Dan Ilic.

The race started in Tarana New South Wales and finished 132 kilometres away in Prospect.

The pigeon arrived first clocking in at one hour and five minutes, the car two hours and ten minutes and the internet dropped out twice and didn't even make it at all. When the upload began on the internet connection the estimated time of upload was between four and nine hours.

"So Prime Minister, maybe you should think twice before dissing carrier pigeons," Ilic said.