Imagine downloading the entire Netflix library in just one second. This astonishing feat is now a reality — at least in a lab — thanks to Japanese researchers who have shattered the world record for internet speed.

Scientists at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan have successfully demonstrated a mind-boggling internet speed of 1.02 petabits per second, all while using standard-sized optical fibre cables. To put it into perspective, one petabit equals a million gigabits — or a staggering one billion megabits per second (1,020,000,000 Mbps). That’s millions of times faster than the average internet speed in many countries.

For example, the United States averages around 300 Mbps, while India clocks in at about 64 Mbps. The contrast is nearly unimaginable — and it opens up a future where buffering and long download times could be obsolete.

What sets this breakthrough apart is not just the sheer speed, but how it was achieved. Instead of using bulky or exotic hardware, the NICT team relied on a modified version of the existing fibre-optic technology used worldwide. Their cable still measures just 0.125 mm in diameter, the same size as common optical fibres. However, inside, it's anything but ordinary.

The cable contains 19 separate cores — ultra-thin pathways for transmitting data — as opposed to the single core found in conventional cables. This multi-core setup dramatically boosts bandwidth, allowing multiple data streams to travel simultaneously without increasing the cable’s physical footprint.

NICT didn’t just prove this in a lab over short distances. They also conducted a long-distance test, transmitting data across 1,808 kilometers (1,123 miles). The experiment involved looping the signal through 19 circuits, each 86.1 km long. The result was 180 data streams operating simultaneously, producing a massive bandwidth of 1.86 exabits per second per kilometer.

“Our goal was to demonstrate that incredibly fast internet speeds can be achieved using infrastructure that already exists,” said NICT.

Such incredible speeds open the door to unimaginable real-world applications. Think instant 8K ultra-HD video streaming, real-time global cloud collaboration, faster AI model training, and instant access to massive data archives. Even downloading the entire English Wikipedia — with all edits — thousands of times per second becomes a trivial task.

Though the technology is still in its experimental phase, the researchers stress that the use of standard cable sizes makes widespread adoption more feasible in the future. While there’s no set date for public deployment, this milestone offers a tantalizing glimpse into what could soon be a new era of high-speed connectivity.

As internet demands grow with AI, immersive media, and cloud-based systems, innovations like this could lay the groundwork for global-scale, lightning-fast networks — and redefine how we interact with data.