A team of engineers in Japan has set a new internet speed record, reaching a staggering 402 Tbps using standard optical fiber cables. This remarkable achievement is fast enough to download games like Baldur’s Gate 3 in under four milliseconds. The team used 50 km of commercially available optical fibers and signal amplifiers to achieve the peak rate of 402 Tbps or 50.25 TB/s.
Unlike previous experiments that required specialized lab conditions, this test utilized readily available technology, employing multiple transmission bands along with advanced amplifiers and gain equalizers to achieve a total signal bandwidth of 37.6 THz. Optical fibers, which form the backbone of the global internet infrastructure, transmit digital information via modulated infrared, light, and ultraviolet signals. The researchers improved the transmission capacity using cutting-edge technology, achieving a bandwidth over 100,000 times greater than what current WiFi 7 can provide.
Japan’s internet speed milestone
Despite this breakthrough, it’s unlikely that such high speeds will be available for home broadband users soon. The cost of the current setup remains prohibitive for general consumers.
Additionally, even the most advanced gaming PCs and setups available today would struggle to handle such speeds due to various hardware bottlenecks, such as Ethernet ports and data storage write speeds. Still, this development is a significant milestone and may eventually influence the future of internet capabilities. Today’s gaming PCs can efficiently manage a 1 Gbps home fiber connection, but a 402 Tbps connection is still far beyond reach.
As technology continues to progress, who knows what the capabilities of home internet might look like in a few decades? By then, the definition of “high speed” will likely have evolved even further, keeping pace with increasingly larger and more complex digital content.
