South African telescope hit by broadband problems

• Astronomers forced to send findings by road• Embarrassed politicians call on telephone firm to resolve issueIt can see to the edge of the observable universe. It can peer back in time to the aftermath of the Big Bang. Just don't ask it to send the secret of creation by email.The R332m (£25m) Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) is an internationally renowned science facility with everything but fast broadband. Its astronomers have found download speeds so slow that they are forced to send their cosmic findings by road.The problem is all too familiar to South African residents: painfully slow service delivery. Politicians have called on a telephone company to resolve the matter "before the country's standing as a credible international scientific partner is irreparably damaged".Salt, on a hilltop outside Sutherland in the Karoo desert, is the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere with a 11m-wide mirror capable of detecting a...

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