Japanese researchers say they set a new world record with the fastest internet speeds, sending over 1,120 miles (1,802 kilometers) of data per second.
This is about 4 million times the average internet speed in the US, and according to some rough estimates, you can download the entire internet archive within 4 minutes. This is also more than twice the previous world record of 50,250 Gbps set by a different team of scientists in 2024.
To achieve this new speed that has not been independently verified, the team has developed a new form of fiber optics to transmit information at groundbreaking speeds, across the distance between New York and Florida.
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Details of this achievement were announced on April 3 at the 48th Fiber Optic Communications Conference in San Francisco, according to a statement from Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.
1,120 miles of travel
The new type of optical fiber corresponds to standard optical fibers with 19 data transmission capacity. The new optical fiber is more suitable for long distance transmissions than existing cables, as the centers of all 19 fibers interact with the light in the same way, resulting in less light variation and less data loss.
The new cable squeezes 19 fibers to a diameter of 5,000 inches (0.127 mm). This is the same thickness as most existing single fiber cables already in use. This initiative means that new cables can use existing infrastructure to send more data.
Related: Internet History Timeline: Arpanet to the World Wide Web
In March 2023, the same team reached similar transmission speeds, but reached less than a third of the distance covered by the new achievements. According to the statement, the biggest hurdle to increasing range was to further reduce data loss, which could occur over long distances.
By solving these challenges, signal strength was improved and data could travel longer distances.
In this demonstration, the data ran the transmission system 21 times and finally reached the data receiver after moving 1,120 miles worth of it.
The record shows technological advances towards the development of long-distance, large-capacity, scalable optical communication systems that can meet the growing global demand for data, the statement suggests.
The volume of data traffic worldwide is expected to increase significantly in the near future, which may require new communications infrastructure, the statement suggests. Second, the team wants to explore practical applications in the field of communications.
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