Tech Japan sets new world record for fastest internet speed

Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have set a new world record for data transmission of 402 terabits per second using commercially available optical fibre. This speed is about 5 million times faster than the average UK broadband. The team, led by the Photonic Network Laboratory, achieved this by utilising all standard optical fibre transmission bands and various amplification technologies. NICT believes this breakthrough could significantly enhance future telecommunication networks by opening previously unused wavelength regions, meeting the growing demand for data services.

According to Ofcom, the average home broadband speed in the UK in 2023 was 69.4 Mbps, with the fastest currently advertised at 1.13 Gbps. Even this speed is still roughly 400,000 times slower than the new record. A data rate of 402 Tb/s could download roughly 12,500 films in a single second – more than three times the number of movies on Netflix. Despite using standard optical fibre to set the new record, the latest speed was only achieved under optimal lab conditions. More research is required to realise even a portion of the potential in the real world.

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• Record data-rate of 402 Tb/s in a standard commercially available optical fibre
• 37.6 THz optical bandwidth achieved by combining six doped-fibre amplifier variants with lumped and distributed Raman-amplification to cover all of the low-loss transmission bands of silica fibres
• Significant contribution to the capacity expansion of optical communication infrastructure to meet the expected demand from new data services