HardwareInternet speed record of 402,000,000 Mbps achieved using standard optic fibre cabling, fast enough to download Baldur’s Gate 3 in less than four millisecondsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
HardwareInternet speed record of 402,000,000 Mbps achieved using standard optic fibre cabling, fast enough to download Baldur’s Gate 3 in less than four millisecondsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Rafe Swan via Getty Images)

Readers of a certain age may well remember when having a 56 kbps internet connection was considered fast. Then DSL came along and dial-up looked like a comatose snail in comparison. A team of engineers, though, have achieved a data transmission rate of 402 Tbps using standard fibre optic cables, so fast that you could download Baldur’s Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the entire Fallout 4 collection all in less than a tenth of a second.
The team in question is Japan’sNational Institute of Information and Communications Technology(viaFudzilla) and it didn’t use any weird tech or microscopic distances in a lab—50 km of commercially available optical fibres and signal amplifiers were employed in the test. At an estimated peak rate of 402 Tbps or 50.25 TB/s, it’s approximately 25% higher than the previous record, set last October.
Of course, nobody will be getting a 400 Tbps home broadband connection any time soon. The cost of the current setup is far too prohibitive for general users, but the development will certainly be of interest to the industry as a whole, asthe amount of data being demandedon tap via the web is gargantuan.
But let’s assume for a moment that youcouldhave such a home broadband package. Could you really download multiple 150 GB games in less than a second? Sadly, no, as there are multiple bottlenecks inside even the verybest gaming PCs, starting with the Ethernet port.
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Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.
Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.
Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.
Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.

Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.
Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.
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