A South African IT company has proved it is faster to transmit data via a carrier pigeon than to send it using the country's leading internet service provider.

Internet speed and connectivity in Africa's largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.

Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80km from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card s strapped to his leg.

Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds - the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a line from Telkom, the country's leading internet service provider.

SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times.

The company has 11 call-centres around the country and regularly sends data to its other branches.

Telkom could not immediately be reached for comment.

Internet speed is expected to improve once a new 17,000km underwater fibre optic cable linking southern and East Africa to other networks becomes operational before South Africa hosts the football World Cup next year.

Local service providers are currently negotiating deals for more bandwidth.