Alcatel-Lucent and BT create fiber optic network with speeds of 1.4 Tb/s

European companies Alcatel-Lucent and British Telecommunications have claimed to have built a fiber optic network capable of providing speeds of up to 1.4 Tb per second, the equivalent of transferring 44 HD movies in one second.

The "Alien Super Channel" was created by bundling together seven 200 Gb/s cables, to give a combined capacity of 1.4 Tb/s. By increasing the density of these fiber channels, researchers were able to increase transmission efficiency by 42 percent as compared to standard networks.

This would make it the world's fastest fiber network used for commercial purposes. The network used existing fiber links between London and Suffolk in England and has been achieved just by tweaking available technology.

Application of this technology to future fiber links could help bring down the cost laying such cables, which at present is one of the biggest obstacles to increasing the use of fiber optic networks. There are only a few select locations in the U.S. that have such networks, largely because most internet service providers, which often run regional monopolies, have no incentive to lay such networks.

[Alcatel-Lucent] [USAToday]