Japan records the world’s fastest internet speeds

A team from Japan has broken the internet speed record, with a stunning 1.02 petabits/second across a distance of 1802 kilometres.

It’s about the same size Four million times faster than the average US broadband speed and enough to download the entire Internet Archive in under four minutes – phew!

Scientists at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, (NICT), revealed the breakthrough during the 48th Optical Fiber Communications Conference held in San Francisco earlier this summer.

Fibre optics breakthrough

Put things in perspective

• Dial-up internet delivered 56 kilobits per second.
• Today, the average U.S. internet speed is approximately 242 megabits a second.
• The previous record was 50,250 gigabytes/second, which was set in 2024.
• What is the new record? This new record? Popular Mechanics.

Unlike other short-range speed records, the Japanese team succeeded in transmitting this enormous volume of data over a long haul – 1,802 kilometres. The achievement is therefore of particular importance for the future global infrastructure.

Researchers developed a 19 core optical fibre and compressed it into a cable that is only 0.127 millimetres in thickness. This design allows for more data to be transmitted without increasing the cable size.

The data was looped 21 times through a recirculating circuit to simulate distance. This proved its reliability and suitability for a wide-scale future application.

Why do you need faster internet?

Global data demand is increasing due to the booming AI, smart grids and Internet of Things (IoT). According to the team’s press release, ‘the volume of data traffic is expected to increase explosively due to new communication services.’

This new technology aims to future proof the internet systems of the world, particularly for long-distance optical communication that is high-capacity and scalable, something traditional broadband cannot handle.

Experts say that while it may seem excessive to home users, it is crucial for future communication systems where vast amounts data will be shared in real-time between machines, cities and devices. This is not about downloading or streaming; it’s all about keeping the world moving.

Japan has proven to be the global leader in technology once more with this accomplishment.

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