Internet Speed of 44 Tbps Hit, Fastest on Record

We’re always complaining about slow and unstable internet in the Philippines, and for good reason. Multiple studies have confirmed that the country has one of the slowest internet speeds in the region. 

But researchers in Australia report that they’ve set a new internet speed record of 44.2 Tbps. That’s fast enough to download 50 100GB Ultra HD Blu-Ray discs in one second. 

Put another way, according to Mashable: “44.2 terabits per second equals 5.525 terabytes per second. In late 2019, Pornhub said it hosts 11 petabytes of data, which is 11,000 terabytes. At these internet speeds (mentioned by the Australian researchers), a person would be able to download all the videos on Pornhub in roughly 1,991 seconds, or 33.2 minutes. 

Citing a report in the journal Nature Communications, The Verge said the researchers from Monash, Swinburne, and RMIT universities hit the blinding internet speed through 75 kilometers of standard optical fiber using a single integrated chip source. The report said this means it has the potential to one day benefit existing fiber infrastructure.

Researchers said the speeds were achieved using "soliton crystal micro-combs," which are "optical frequency combs generated by integrated micro-cavity resonators." Essentially, these micro-combs, which is being used for the first time in a field trial, is a more efficient and compact way to transmit data.

Don’t count on the tech to be available to the general public just yet, especially in this country. Researchers said that if these super fast internet speeds end up becoming commercialized, it’s likely to first be used to connect data centers.

We’ll probably have to wait a while before the tech becomes affordable enough to be used by us common folk.