Researchers have achieved record-breaking data speeds of 450 terabits per second over a standard fibre-optic network in London.
To put that in perspective, the fastest widely available consumer connection in the UK is 1Gbps, which is roughly 450,000 times slower than the connection achieved by the team from the National Institute of Information.
The 450Tbps data rates achieved during the experiment surpasses previous records of 402 Tbps and 430 Tbps, set in 2024 and 2025 over laboratory fibres.
Unlike those earlier demonstrations, the new experiment used real, already-installed fibres from the UK National Dark Fibre Facility (NDFF) and is therefore the closest demonstration to date of how the full capacity of existing fibre infrastructure could be unlocked, potentially paving the way for the next generation of networks needed to support AI services and beyond-5G mobile systems.
The NDFF is fundamentally based on the same fibre-optic technology delivering internet to homes and businesses...