8K Movies in 1 Second? Japan’s Internet Says Yes

Japan has set a new global benchmark in internet technology by clocking an unprecedented data transmission speed of 1.02 petabits per second. The achievement, spearheaded by researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), marks a significant advancement in the world of data networks.

According to NICT, this breakthrough was accomplished using a 19-core optical fibre system capable of transmitting data over a distance of 1,808 kilometres without loss of quality. The transmission infrastructure, while retaining the same thickness (0.125 mm) as conventional fibre optic cables, demonstrated unmatched performance, sending 1.86 exabits per second times kilometres — the highest on record.

The ultra-fast speed enables data downloads at a rate that dwarfs existing global averages. To compare, the average internet speed in India stands at 63.55 Mbps, and in the United States, it is significantly lower than Japan’s current milestone. The newly recorded speed is approximately 16 million times faster than India’s and 3.5 million times higher than the U.S. average.

The feat was made possible through a collaboration involving NICT’s Photonic Network Laboratory, Sumitomo Electric, and European partners. While NICT handled the development of the transmission system, Sumitomo Electric engineered the high-capacity fibre cable.

In the experimental setup, researchers employed transmitters and receivers supported by 19 optical paths. Each path ran through a loop measuring 86.1 km, with signals circulating 21 times to simulate real-world transmission distance. This resulted in 180 separate data streams moving simultaneously across 1,808 km.

At the recorded speed, one could theoretically download the full English Wikipedia database around 10,000 times in one second, or stream massive 8K video files nearly instantaneously. The data volume and distance validate the system's compatibility with current optical cable infrastructure.