Japanese scientists at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), in partnership with Sumitomo Electric and international collaborators, have achieved an extraordinary milestone in internet technology. They sent data at a blazing speed of 1.02 petabits per second more than double the previous record over a distance of 1,808 km using a 19‑core optical fibre cable of standard thickness.
To put this into perspective, this speed could download all of Netflix or even the entire English version of Wikipedia in less than a second. It’s also about 16 million times faster than India's average internet connection, and roughly 3.5 million times quicker than the U.S. average. Despite relying on existing cable infrastructure, the signal remained stable across thousands of kilometres.
While this ultra-high-speed network is not yet feasible for everyday users, it showcases what the future of internet connectivity might look like—supporting massive data flows needed for next-generation technologies like AI, 8K streaming, cloud computing, and advanced communications.
