FollowToday is a historical day for internet cat lovers! Soon, along with the rest of us, they will be able to watch lovely cat photos much faster than before. IBM already allotted $3billion for a post silicon processor R&D. We will need results soon to pair them with ground breaking data transfer speeds announced on Thursday by Bell Labs. The promised ultra speed internet has not lived up to the demands so far, but this is huge news.
In the 1990s the U.S were enjoying the benefits of being interconnected while most of the world barely had access to it. The first wave of implementation was very expensive and the returns were initially risky. After the picture was getting more and more clear, other parts of the world invested in internet infrastructure. They ripped the benefits of a solid experience while introducing the newest technology. Today we can see countries such Romania (3rd place) and South Korea (4th place) enjoying transfer speeds higher than 50 Mps according to netindex.com, while the US has access to an average of around 25 Mps and occupies the modest 30th place. It might be about to change soon.
Ultra speed internet running through copper wires
Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs pleased us today by releasing information regarding the latest testing of data transfer speed. Copper wires might seem outdated in a world where the material facet of innovation constantly changes. But Bell Labs achieved a speed of 10 Gbps in a lab test using the classical copper wire. The prototype technology was named XG-Fast, as in a faster version of the G standard coming next year. Two pairs of standard copper wire lines supported the transfer of 10 Gbps on a distance of 30 meters, almost 100 feet. While it does not sound like much, even as it is, the technology has the potential to change how internet providers deliver their services.
Right now, most providers focus on making plans to implement a fiber optic infrastructure. The fiber cables along with all the practical work of digging around turn the whole enterprise into a very expensive one. But if copper wires have the capacity to potentially support such speeds, the whole project will be much cheaper and way faster. As usual, from a lab test to its real world palpable consequences it takes some time. Today most people will probably be content with just a fraction of the speed. The test shamed the previous broadband Internet speed record by providing eight times better speed. We will call that actual ultra speed internet.
