back to article Boffins show Ed Vaizey what superfast means: 50,000x faster than UK broadband

Researchers from University College London's (UCL) Optical Networks Group have demonstrated a 1.125 Tb/s data transmission rate as part of their investigation into the capacity limits of optical transmission systems. Their study was published in Scientific Reports under the title "Increasing the information rates of optical …

  1. hplasm
    Stop

    "...the average speed of a UK broadband connection of 24 megabits per second (Mb/s)"

    Hahahahahaha!!

    Funny! Tell us another one!

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: "...the average speed of a UK broadband connection of 24 megabits per second (Mb/s)"

      Well, if you believe the Virgin Media junk mail then 24Mbits is akin to a snail crawling up a pane of glass?

      OTOH, the BT Backhaul can't take even 10% of this so why are we even bothering to discuss speeds that will probably never be reached until 2116. Even then the last mile will still be over single strand twisted pair copper PSTN quality wire so anything over 80Mbits is more than could be expected even with a following wind and les than 50ft to the Fibre Box.

  2. Pen-y-gors

    Eyeball upgrade

    Ok, so they can download a dodgy DVD in .003 of a second - how do we upgrade our eyeballs so we can watch that DVD in .003 of a second?

    1. FartingHippo

      Re: Eyeball upgrade

      If that's your aim in life, I feel very sorry for the your missus.

    2. caffeine addict
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Eyeball upgrade

      With a little bit of searching you can find many gentlemen's interest films where a young lady gets 500MB/s transfer to her eyeballs.

  3. fuzzie
    Trollface

    Downloaded?

    I'm sure he meant "streamed" in one second :)

  4. Sgt_Oddball
    Gimp

    depends on how dodgy

    If we're talking gentleman's special interests dodgy films then I'd rather not watch it in 0.003 of a second...hands don't move that fast and would leave a hell of mark if they did..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: depends on how dodgy

      Q. Do you smoke after sex?

      A. Depends how fast I do it.

  5. Just Enough

    HDGofT/second

    "the data rate we have achieved would allow the entire HD Games of Thrones series to be downloaded within one second."

    It doesn't have the pizazz of the size of Wales, or swimming pool volumes, but I spy an new unit of measurement.

  6. Martin Summers Silver badge

    So when will Openreach be rolling this out? At least my grandchildren's children will possibly enjoy it.

  7. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "improve the optical network infrastructure to support the explosion of digital content, cloud and e-health services, as well as the ubiquitous connectivity of smart devices referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT)."

    So, to a large extent it's another solution looking for a problem.

  8. PaulAb

    PAH, HUMBUG!!!

    I'd be happy with the 'Average' 1/50,000th of that speed. Currently the Open reach Circus is in town and has successfully slowed me from my paltry 1.5mb to around 124k this is while they upgrade me back to 1.5mb. GO, BT.... GO! (Sorry, I meant 'Just Go')

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