Fastest internet
Fastest internet in the worldUCL

Imagine being able to download the entire Netflix library and the time it would take with the current internet speeds. We are not talking about one particular movie or an entire season of your favorite TV show. Imagine being able to download everything there is on Netflix - most of it you didn't even know existed - in less than one second. What if we told you that's possible with the world's fastest internet that's thousand times faster than the fastest broadband currently available in the market.

Researchers at the University College London have recorded the world's fastest internet speed at an insane 178 terabits per second (Tbps). To put things into perspective, that's 178,000 Gbps. Moreover, the minimum internet speed in India is 2Mbps and there are commercially available broadband services offering as high as 1Gbps. Yep. The world's fastest internet is 178,000 times faster than the fastest Gigafiber broadband available in India.

World's fastest internet

Internet cables
Internet cablesWikimedia Commons

"At this speed, it would take less than an hour to download the data that made up the world's first image of a black hole (which, because of its size, had to be stored on half a ton of hard drives and transported by plane). The speed is close to the theoretical limit of data transmission set out by American mathematician Claude Shannon in 1949," the researchers explained.

At 178Tbps, UCL researchers have set a world record. The project was conducted by Dr Lidia Galdino from the Royal Academy of Engineering, Xtera and Kiddi Research. The researchers also noted the biggest benefit of the technique, which can be deployed on already existing infrastructure.

To make the current setup capable of delivering the insane speeds is by upgrading the amplifiers that are located on optical fibre routes at 40-100km intervals. Upgrading is more cost-effective compared to installing new optical fibres. Sadly, it's not available commercially and it's not likely to be available anytime soon. So put a pin on your plans to download all of Netflix content.