There hasn’t been a lot of good news during these past few months. We hope that all of you reading this have made it through the lockdown in reasonably good health and your jobs or businesses are in good shape. Last week there was a glimmer of good news coming from Australia. We know that everyone would like some non-COVID news and here it is: researchers in Australia have recorded the fastest Internet data speed ever.
How Fast Is The Fastest?
The average Internet speed in the US is about 50.2 mbps. For the most part our Internet connections are unspectacular when it comes to Europe or many other developed nations. There are some places that have very fast connections like Bayside, New York at 100.8 mpbs and Longmont, Colorado at 100.5 mpbs. On the flip side some more rural areas like Sylva, North Carolina clocks in with slower Internet speeds at 6.5 mpbs and that clocks in at the slowest Internet connection in the US.
What can you do better at 100 mpbs that you can’t do at a slower speed? It is ideal for large households and allows for streaming of multiple videos in high definition. It also allows for some serious gaming to take place.
So, what speed did the researchers reach in Australia? 44.2 tbps.
44.2 Tbps?
That is 44.2 terabytes per second, almost 440,000 times faster that the fastest home Internet connection available in the US.
What can you do at that speed? You can download 1,000 high definition videos in less than a second. You can download 11 million mp3 songs in one second and you could fill up the largest commercially available hard drive in about one third of a second.
How Was This Done
The researchers said that the speed was achieved by using a device that replaces around 80 lasers called a micro-comb. A micro-comb is a laser source made up of high quality infrared lasers produced by a single chip. Each laser uses a specific frequency of light and has the capacity to be its own separate communications channel.
This was not just found in a lab in Australia, it was put to the test in a real-world fiber optic network in the country too and the same speeds were reached.
How Can This Affect Us?
The Internet is moving to fiber optic services and this proves that not only do we not know how much data can be transmitted on something like this but we have the infrastructure already. This could help to make the self-driving car a reality and imagine the advancements that can be made in technology, education, medicine and any other academic endeavor with what would seem to be unlimited bandwidth. The communications industry would be revolutionized and that is just a start.
It’s Nice To Dream
It is nice to dream but don’t hold your breath for Comcast to introduce a tier at this speed. It’s not that they need a major infrastructure overhaul, in fact most of it already is fiber optic, but what would you do with that kind of speed?
When surfing the Internet there does come a speed in which you really don’t need anymore. Considering most people seem to be content with gaming over a 40 or 50 mpbs connection, 44.2 tbps would be overkill.
Of course this would not come into a home immediately. It would however be available for businesses or universities to start since those entities need a lot of bandwidth. This is a glimpse of the future though and the future looks pretty cool.