In a possibly groundbreaking technological development, China claims to have developed the world’s fastest internet and exceeded global expectations by introducing the world’s first next-generation fiber internet service that has speeds ten times its closest rivals, the US and South Korea.
This new backbone network, spanning over 3,000 kilometers of optical fiber cabling, can transmit data at an astonishing 1.2 terabits (1,200 gigabits) per second. The route connects Beijing in the north, Wuhan in central China, and Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong.
The network can send 150 4K movies at this speed in less than a second. Furthermore, it can send all of Netflix’s global content library in under half an hour.
Activated in July and officially launched Monday, the network surpassed all operational tests and performed reliably, marking a significant milestone. The collaboration behind this achievement involved Tsinghua University, China Mobile, Huawei Technologies, and Cerner Corporation.
This accomplishment defies industry predictions, as experts anticipated the emergence of 1 terabit per second ultra-high-speed networks by around 2025. Most of the world’s internet backbone networks currently operate at 100 gigabits per second, with the United States recently completing the transition to its fifth-generation Internet2 at 400 gigabits per second.
To be clear, China is not claiming they have the fastest data transfer speeds — the most immediate data transfer took place at over 300 Terabytes per second when a couple of scientists and researchers from Japan set up an intranet network in a university campus and shared files across the network.
The Beijing-Wuhan-Guangzhou connection is part of China’s ambitious Future Internet Technology Infrastructure (FITI) project, a decade-long initiative and the latest iteration of the national China Education and Research Network (Cernet).
FITI project leader Wu Jianping from the Chinese Academy of Engineering emphasized that the superfast line successfully operated and equipped China with the advanced technology needed to construct an even faster internet.
Huawei Technologies vice-president Wang Lei, speaking at the press conference at Tsinghua University, highlighted the network’s capability to transfer the data equivalent of 150 high-definition films in just one second.
Comparing the new internet backbone to a superfast train track, Xu Mingwei of Tsinghua University explained that it replaces the need for ten regular tracks to carry the same amount of data, resulting in a more cost-effective and manageable system.
These backbone networks play a crucial role in national education and research, catering to the growing demand for data transfer from applications like connected electric vehicles and mines utilizing industrial 5G technology.
The FITI project, initiated in 2013 and supported by the government, managed by the Education Ministry, and involving 40 other universities, underscores China’s commitment to reducing its reliance on the US and Japan for routers and other components of internet technology.
Notably, all software and hardware for this system are domestically produced, showcasing advancements in routers, switches, and optical fiber connections achieved by the technical research team, which developed its superfast router capable of handling unprecedented data volumes.
