A well know Swedish internet guru has proven that broadband speeds of 40 Gigabits per second can realistically be delivered to homes for a low price. Showing a huge act of unselfishness, Peter Lothberg decided his 75 year old mother should be the first to experience the lightning speeds – thousands of times faster than the average home broadband connection.
In practical terms, a speed of 40 Gigabits/sec would allow 1500 streams of HDTV to be accessed simultaneously. If nothing on the HDTV channels takes your fancy (you must be fussy!) then you could easily download a DVD in about 2 seconds.
The technology works on fibre optic cables, rather than the traditional copper wires used in many countries worldwide. Lothberg has developed a new modulation technique which is the secret behind being able to deliver the broadband speeds affordably – his technology can travel up to 2000km along the fibre with no need for any infrastructure in between.
When will we see it?
Whilst this is a real breakthrough which could revolutionize internet HDTV, it’s uptake depends on many other factors. One of the most important is reliance on telecommunication companies worldwide rolling out comprehensive fibre optic networks to residential areas.
The telco’s would be asking for some proven return on investment figures before treading this path, one would imagine.
The question of big screen TVs stifling the development of internet HDTV because of its impracticality has been raised before – but with the advent of 40 Gigabits per second broadband, no doubt content providers will be lining up to be one of those 1500 simultaneous HDTV channels, not to mention the advertisers!
[Via TheLocal.se]
