USB (universal bus serial) flash drives or pen drives are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks were used. They are smaller, faster, have thousands times more capacity and are more durable and reliable because of their lack of moving parts.
Ten pigeons carrying USB keys were released from a Yorkshire farm on Thursday. They reached their destination in Skegness, 120 miles (192 km) away, within an hour and a quarter.
Meanwhile, a five-minute video download which was started at the moment of the birds' release had only managed to upload 24 percent of a 300 MB file within that time. Campaigners said the stunt was being carried out to illustrate that broadband in some parts of Britain is still "not fit for purpose", reports the Telegraph. "The farm we are using has a connection of around 100 to 200 kbps (kilobits per second)," Tref Davies, the stunt's organiser, said.
Davies, who is co-founder of business ISP Timico and serves on the board of ISPA (Internet Service Providers' Association), said: "This is the UK. It should be well-connected but around a third of homes still can't get broadband." However, British Telecom disputes his figures. A spokesperson said that 99 percent of homes could now get broadband, leaving an estimated 160,000 lines "where excessive line length means broadband won't work."
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