A team of British academics from Alton University and international collaborators has broken the global record for data transmission, reaching rates 1.6 million times quicker than traditional household internet. Their discovery comprises a unique approach that uses existing fibre optic lines to achieve an astounding 402 terabits per second, which beats the previous record of 301 terabits per second by 25%.
This novel technology employs standard fibre optic lines, avoiding the need for additional infrastructure. While this record-breaking speed is presently experimental, researchers hope it will become available as the technology evolves.
The speeds obtained in this investigation are more than 100 million times faster than Netflix’s suggested bandwidth for HD viewing. An average household would require substantially less bandwidth, whereas an influencer household would require little more than 314 megabits per second. This development allows data from millions of households to be transported effortlessly over a single fibre optic line.
This technique has the potential to significantly increase the capacity of existing fibre networks, allowing them to meet future data demands. The researchers obtained these speeds by sending data over all six available fibre optic bands and boosting signals in underutilised wavelength regions with bespoke amplifiers.
