Japan has set a new world record for internet speed, reaching 1.02 petabits per second, according to the country’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). That’s fast enough to download the entire Netflix library or the English version of Wikipedia thousands of times in just one second.
To compare, this new speed is 16 million times faster than India’s average internet speed of about 63.55 Mbps and 3.5 million times faster than the average internet speed in the United States, based on current data.
“Our goal was to show that extremely high-speed internet can be achieved over long distances using current infrastructure,” said NICT in a statement.
The achievement was made by NICT’s Photonic Network Laboratory, in partnership with Sumitomo Electric and researchers in Europe. They managed to send data across 1,808 kilometres using a special optical fibre cable with 19 cores. These cables are the same size just 0.125 mm thick as the ones currently used in internet infrastructure.
In the experiment, researchers sent signals through 19 loops, each measuring 86.1 km, repeating the journey 21 times. In total, the signals travelled 1,808 km and carried 180 separate data streams.
The total amount of data transferred per second per kilometre reached 1.86 exabits, the highest value ever recorded.
The fibre cable itself was developed by Sumitomo Electric, while NICT built the transmission system. The team used advanced transmitters, receivers, and other equipment to achieve this result.
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At this speed, it’s estimated that one could download the entire English-language Wikipedia about 100 GB 10,000 times in a second, according to tech site Gagadget. The speed would also allow users to download high-resolution 8K video files instantly.
“This test shows that ultra-fast internet is possible without needing to replace the current cable infrastructure,” NICT said.
The breakthrough could help meet the rising demand for high-speed internet across the globe, especially as more people use large-scale data applications like video streaming, cloud storage, and artificial intelligence.
NICT has not announced when or if this technology will be rolled out for public use, but the result shows what is possible with advances in optical fibre systems.
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