Boffins at Japan’s Tohoku University have developed a method to allow standard fibre optic cables to transfer data at hundreds of terabits per second. That means, before you blink, your movie torrent will be downloaded and ready to watch. The promising technique does not involve a new infrastructure for information delivery; it actually revolves around making adjustments to existing protocols.

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, used in wireless data connections and digital TV tuners, relies on a stable wavelength for the movement of data. The stability is not offered via optical fibres, but the researchers have found a way to alter this fact. A laser is utilized to change the data transmission method via optical fibres, allowing QAM to be implemented for internet connectivity. This in turn gives rise to surprisingly fast, terabit/second connections.

Though this is unlikely to hit any time soon, be warned; when your kids reach the age of puberty, they shall have so much porn in their lives, it shall be difficult to see them past the mountain of HDD backups they collect to store it all. Much like us now—it’s amazing how some things never change. [Tech.co.uk]