The speed record for fibre optic broadband transfer rates has been beaten by scientists from the Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) at Sydney University.

Researchers were able to achieve transfer rates of 26 terabits per second over a 50-kilometre single-mode fibre optic cable - smashing previous records for superfast broadband speeds, ABC Online reports.

The experiment saw the scientists splitting a single laser beam into 325 separate optical frequencies, thereby allowing a massive amount of data to be handled without the need for multiple fibre optic cables.

Professor Ben Eggleton, director of CUDOS, commented: "The real breakthrough here isn't just the capacity, because groups earlier this year have reported beyond this, it's the fact that it's one laser.

"It's a simple optical technique that's enabled the generation of this enormous amount of data in this conventional optical fibre."

He added that present high-speed internet usage of 100 Mbps may be adequate for today's needs, but in five to ten years' time this is likely to need a dramatic improvement.

Indeed, speeds of up to one gigabit per user may not be enough, as the latest technologies are likely to be far more dependent on the rapid transfer of large amounts of information.

Meanwhile, the latest Broadband Infrastructure Index from Point Topic recently claimed that the rollout of superfast broadband services across the UK is falling behind target.

The company revealed that its marker fell from 55 to 53 per cent during the last six months, indicating that more needs to be done to push forward the expansion of superfast broadband services in the UK.

It said problems such as the slowdown of plans by CityFibre Holdings and alternative developer Vtesse Networks have had a significant impact on the sector in recent months.
 

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