Lewis Hamilton to race data
2010-04-19 13:51
Cape Town - Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton will race data transmitted across Vodacom's fibre network on Tuesday.
"It's an event to highlight the service we offer," Ermano Quartero, managing executive of products and services at Vodacom Business told News24.
He said that the service, Metro-Ethernet Fibre network (Metro E) has been available for a year and Vodacom wanted to draw parallels between high speed internet access and Formula One. He added, though, that the service was not intended for private homes.
"This service is aimed at the enterprise market, not homes. I think fibre optic connection to homes is a pipe dream in this country. It's just too expensive," he said.
Tongue-in-cheek
Hamilton, currently fourth in the drivers' standings, will race the Kyalami circuit in a Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 while the data will be transmitted from Midrand to Sandton across Vodacom's network.
In 2009, a pigeon named Winston flew from Howick (outside Pietermaritzburg) to Hillcrest (outside Durban) to prove that he is faster at transferring 4GB of data than a landline. He had a memory card strapped to his leg.
"It's a tongue-in-cheek demonstration of what the network can do with the data and Lewis (Hamilton) knows the time he has to beat - he has to do a lap time of under two minutes," said Quartero.
Vodacom has set up a website where users can upload data to make up the 5.4GB capsule that Hamilton will race. Data may not exceed 1MB in file size.
"We're trying to draw a parallel between our network and Formula One. It's high technology, high speed, high performance, and high reliability and my money's on Lewis," said Quartero.
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