Internet speeds have made significant progress over the years, but there are still instances where the ancient method of carrier pigeon proves to be faster. In the past, carrier pigeons were used by the Ancient Greeks to spread news about the Olympic Games, and in 1850, Reuters utilized a fleet of 45 pigeons to transmit news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, Germany. Even the U.S. Army had its own fleet of carrier pigeons during World War I, sending 600 to France. These birds can reach speeds of up to 40 miles per hour and cover distances of up to 400 miles, with some recorded instances of reaching speeds of 110 mph and traveling up to 1,000 miles.
In certain situations, carrier pigeons can outperform the internet in terms of speed, particularly in rural areas where internet speeds are significantly slower than the national average. The determining factors for whether a pigeon can beat the internet are internet speed, distance, and data size. The size of the data being sent is what slows down internet transmission, not the distance it needs to travel. While many Americans have access to high-speed internet, rural areas often suffer from spotty and slow internet connections. In 2020, nearly 20% of rural residents did not have access to download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds above 3 Mbps, which are considered high-speed broadband according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Internet speeds below these thresholds can support basic web browsing, email, and standard-definition video streaming for a couple of users but are insufficient for more users or data-intensive tasks like 4K video streaming or using complex cloud-based software. The FCC is currently considering raising these benchmarks to 100 Mbps for download speeds and 20 Mbps for upload speeds to better meet the needs of modern internet users. Uneven investment in internet infrastructure perpetuates the rural-urban and rich-poor divides in internet quality, as internet service providers prioritize areas with competitive environments and wealthier regions.
To overcome this disparity, some rural areas have turned to local cooperatives and companies for internet access, resulting in faster internet speeds. In communities where median upload speeds are as low as 1 Mbps, even basic tasks like sending a video across town can be slower than using a carrier pigeon. Conversely, residents in certain cities enjoy upload speeds exceeding 100 Mbps. The daily inefficiencies caused by slow internet can hinder economic growth and lead to increased unemployment as reliance on the digital economy grows.
Even in areas with high-speed internet, carrier pigeons have proven to be faster when dealing with large amounts of data. Earlier this year, a YouTuber and software developer named Jeff Geerling attached 3 terabytes' worth of flash drives to a pigeon and raced it against his super-fast gigabit fiber internet. The pigeon emerged victorious. However, it's important to note that carrier pigeons have limitations. They can only carry a few ounces of weight, are susceptible to avian diseases, and cannot fly indefinitely.
According to Geerling, making absolute statements about pigeons is difficult because their behavior can vary. Sometimes they stop for food or drinks, and there's always the possibility that one may fall in love and never return.
When large amounts of data need to be moved, companies like Amazon and Google opt for a more dependable method of transportation: trucks.
In 2016, Amazon introduced AWS Snowmobile, a shipping container capable of holding up to 100 petabytes of data. To put that into perspective, it's equivalent to 20 billion iPhone photos. Even with incredibly fast internet speeds, uploading 100 petabytes would take decades. However, transporting the data by truck across the country would only require a few days.
Maxar, a company specializing in satellite imagery, became the first to utilize AWS Snowmobile in 2017. They transported their extensive 16-year archive of high-resolution imagery to the cloud using a truck, making it easily accessible for military, government, and media purposes.
Interestingly, long before Maxar began collecting aerial imagery, pigeons were employed for this task. In the early 1900s, the pigeon camera was developed to capture photos from the sky. So, if you ever decide to send your next flash drive of data via pigeon, consider attaching a camera as well.
Regarding the information provided in the story, the broadband speeds by county were sourced from Measurement Lab. These speeds are an aggregation of 280 million point-in-time measurements of users' internet performance from January 1st to November 7th. The majority of these test results come from Google search's integration of M-Lab's open-source testing tool called Network Diagnostic Tool.