Blazing bits transmitted 4.5 million times faster than broadband
An international research team has sent an astounding amount of data at a nearly incomprehensible speed. It's the fastest data transmission ever using a single optical fiber and shows just how speedy the process can get using current materials.
In the UK, according to a report by regulatory group Ofcom published in September 2023, the average broadband speed in the country is about 70 megabits per second (Mb/s). While that's plenty of pipeline to watch tiny house tours, see robots do back flips, and check out the latest AI-generated videos, it's not really significant in the world of serious data transmission.
In that arena, world records are set at speeds of 319 Terabits per second (TB/s) and then broken a year later at one petabit per second (a petabit is one million gigabits). Of course that record then again gets trounced by another one that clocks an almost scary 22.9 petabits per second and so on and so on.
But for these super-speedy data transmission feats, engineers have used multiple fiber optic strands. Now, researchers at Aston University in the UK, in collaboration with researchers from Nokia Bell Labs in the US and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan, have managed to squeeze an impressive 301 TB/s through a single standard fiber optic cable.
