Are you satisfied with the speed of your internet at home? Scientists in the United Kingdom have now shown that it can be done much faster. Thanks to a new technology via fiber optic, which is already being used on a large scale for communication, they have succeeded in sending data packets at no less than 301 terabits per second, or 301 million megabits. That is almost 3 million times as fast as the average internet connection in Belgium.
The impressive result was announced in a press release last week. According to Aston University, the researchers used wavelengths that have not previously been used via fiber optics. Even more impressive is that it involves data transfer via a single standard optical fiber.
According to the website SpeedNet, which allows users anywhere in the world to test the speed of their internet connection, the average Belgian household with a broadband connection can count on a speed of 97.61 megabits per second. Compared to that, 301 terabits per second is almost unimaginably fast; In practice, this would allow as many as 1,800 films per second to be sent at 4K, the highest quality that most streaming services such as Netflix and Prime currently offer to their customers.
According to Dr. Ian Phillips, who is leading the project on behalf of the university, his team used a so-called optical processor, which allows data to be sent over two new bands. These tires have remained unused until now, because there is not yet a great demand for them among consumers. He thinks that users can look forward to a much faster, more efficient and more stable internet in the future.
“It is also a ‘greener solution’ than laying new fibers and cables,” says the scientist. “After all, it uses the fiber optic network that is already in use.”
However, it is not yet known in what period customers will immediately see the speed of their internet increase thanks to this experiment. Although the results of the experiment were already shown last October at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) in Glasgow, their research has not yet been officially published.
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Tags: million times faster home internet scientists send data record speed fiber optic Science Planet
