The Future of Internet Speed: Hollow-Core Fibre Promises Faster, Greener Connections

Hollow-Core Fibre (HCF) is redefining optical transmission by enabling ultra-low latency, higher bandwidth, and reduced signal loss compared to conventional glass fibres. It represents a paradigm shift in telecom and data infrastructure, with major players like Microsoft Azure and VIAVI already scaling production and testing solutions.

The leading researchers and companies behind Hollow-Core Fibre (HCF) technology include the University of Southampton, Microsoft Azure, Corning, and Heraeus. These groups are at the forefront of developing, scaling, and commercializing HCF for next-generation optical transmission.  

What Makes HCF Revolutionary

• Speed Advantage: Light travels ~30% faster in air than in glass, giving HCF up to 45% faster signal transmission.
• Lower Latency: HCF reduces latency by ~30%, critical for financial trading, cloud computing, and AI workloads.
• Reduced Loss: Attenuation is ~35% lower than standard fibres, meaning signals travel longer distances without amplification.
• Dispersion Control: Chromatic dispersion is cut by up to 70%, improving signal integrity for high-capacity links.
• Energy Efficiency: Less need for repeaters and amplifiers reduces power consumption, aligning with sustainability goals.

Comparison: Conventional Fibre vs Hollow-Core Fibre

Feature	Conventional Glass Fibre	Hollow-Core Fibre (HCF)
Signal Medium	Solid silica core	Air-filled hollow core
Transmission Speed	~30% slower than air	Nearly speed of light in air
Latency	Higher	~30% lower
Attenuation (Signal Loss)	Stable but limited improvement	~35% lower
Chromatic Dispersion	Significant	Up to 70% reduced
Energy Use	High (repeaters needed)	Lower (fewer repeaters)
Applications	General telecom	AI, cloud, finance, ultra-low latency networks

Applications & Outlook

• Telecom & Internet Backbones: Faster, more reliable long-haul links.
• Cloud & AI Workloads: Microsoft Azure is scaling HCF to support massive data throughput.
• Financial Trading: Millisecond-level latency reduction can transform high-frequency trading.
• Specialty Environments: Precision photonics, quantum communication, and secure military networks.

Challenges & Risks

• Manufacturing Complexity: HCF requires advanced fabrication (photonic bandgap, anti-resonant designs).
• Integration Issues: Compatibility with existing fibre infrastructure is still evolving.
• Polarization Stability: Environmental perturbations can cause drift, though new antiresonant designs are addressing this.
• Cost: Currently higher than conventional fibre, but expected to drop as scaling improves.

With 5,255 GB/second, Australia Records World's Fastest Internet Speed Ever

Researchers in Australia from Monash University, Swinburne University and RMIT University claimed to have logged a data speed of 44.2 terabits per second (Tbps), that is about 5,255 Gigabytes per second, a speed with which you can download 1000 HD movies in less than a second.

[caption id="attachment_145785" align="alignleft" width="300"] Micro-Comb[/caption]

This incredible speed was achieved using a single-piece of tiny device called a "Micro-Comb", which claimed to have replace existing internet infrastructure sometime soon and could hit behemoth of download speeds, providing millions with ample data at the same time, even during the busiest periods.

Researchers said they achieved the new record speed by using micro-comb that replaces around 80 lasers found in some existing telecoms hardware. The micro-comb was planted into and tested - outside the laboratory - using existing infrastructure, similar to that used by Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN).

The result was the highest amount of data ever produced by a single optical chip, which are used in modern fibre-optic broadband systems around the world. The Australian team now hope their findings offer a glimpse into how internet connections could look in the future.

The study says during peak time, internet speed at this rate can be accessible for over 1.8 million houses in Melbourne. In addition to this, billions of people from across the world.

However, the reality might not be quite as shiny as downloading all of Netflix in a blink, but with other potential improvements to internet technology on the horizon, even moderate jumps of several terabits per second over short distances are improvements worth paying attention to.

"And it's not just Netflix we're talking about here – it's the broader scale of what we use our communication networks for," says Monash University computer systems engineer Bill Corcoran.

"This data can be used for self-driving cars and future transportation and it can help the medicine, education, finance and e-commerce industries, as well as enable us to read with our grandchildren from kilometres away."

~ The research was published in Nature Communications.

These Countries Have The Fastest Internet In 2016; India Ranks at 105

Post the demonetisation announcement, the Indian government emphasised on embracing the cashless economy and making using of digital payment modes wherever possible, but is India really up for the challenge? Well, according to a new report published by Akamai, a US-based cloud services provider, it apparently isn't even close. According to the report, with just 4.1 Mbps average connection speed, India acquires a sad 105th position on world’s fastest internet connectivity speeds list. With 26.3 megabits per second, South Korea topped the list, and was the only country above the 25 Mbps threshold in Q3 2016. It was followed by Hong Kong at the second position with 20.1 Mbps and Norway at third with 20 Mbps.

[caption id="attachment_112909" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image Credit: Akamai[/caption]

South Korea was once again the top country in the world for the average connection speed metric, despite having a 2.5% quarter-over-quarter drop in average connection speeds. It has been able to achieve this position as a result of 20 years of hard labor of the South Korean government. It was in the 1990s that the South Korean government realised the great potential the broadband industry holds for the economy and aggressively started pursuing it. After building a robust national infrastructure for high-speed internet and liberalising the telecommunications sector, it introduced regulations to keep the broadband market competitive in the country . In order to encourage citizens to embrace computers and high-speed internet connections, the government even went ahead and subsidised the entire cost for low-income people and others not connected to internet at the time.



The 2.5% drop in the average internet connectivity in South Korea has resulted in narrowing the gap between it and the lowest-ranked Asia Pacific country, India from 23 Mbps to 22 Mbps. Similar to Q2, even Q3 witnessed quarterly gains across almost 11 of the 15 Asia Pacific countries/ regions surveyed, ranging from 3.4% in Hong Kong to 22% in Vietnam. The quarter saw three countries pulling up double-digit quarterly gains, compared with four in the second quarter.

Search giant Google has its eyes set on the Asia Pacific region and has made several infrastructure investments in the region during the third quarter of 2016. In June, Google in partnership with five major Asian telecommunications companies deployed FASTER, which is a 60 Tbps submarine cable linking Japan and the United States. In September last year, Google announced that extension of the cable linking Japan and Taiwan was ready for service. The cable is expected to boost speeds for Google services throughout Asia. Closer home, Google entered into a partnership with the Indian Railways and RailTel to bring public Wi-Fi to more than 50 train stations across India, with more than 3.5 million users accessing it each month.

When it comes to average peak connections speed in the third quarter, South Korea once again topped the chart with 162 Mbps, while India acquired a lowly 107th position with just 27 Mbps average peak connections speed.

Between the year 1996 and 2001, the world witnessed an astonishing a six-fold rise in Korean internet hosts. With 78%, South Korea is also the world leader in broadband adoption. The second position is taken by Japan with 68%.

According to experts, the thing which works in South Koreas's favour is its high population density. It has been noted that over 80% of the country’s citizens reside in urban areas—setting up fast connections over short distances is much easier and efficient. In fact, the reason why countries like Hong Kong and Singapore also have good internet speed is mainly because they enjoy a 100% urban population. According to the Akamai report, at a 5.3% increase, Singapore witnessed the greatest jump in connection speeds from the previous quarter.

Overall, the Akamai report highlighted that the global average connection speed increased by 2.3% from Q2 to Q3 2016, and settled at 6.3 Mbps.

An interesting thing to note in the Top 10 list is despite the fact that Latvia, South Korea, and Norway witnessed quarterly decreases of 3.5%, 2.5%, and 0.2% respectively, they somehow managed to retain a spot for themselves in the top ten. However, Iceland unfortunately couldn't do the same. With a 5.4% drop in speed from Q2 to Q3, it had to settle at the 14th spot from 10th position in the previous quarter.

TRAI Launches 'MySpeed' App To Check Your Mobile Internet Speed

Frustrated with your internet speed? Has slow internet surfing become something you have now learned to live with, maybe forever? Well, don't. The situation is about the change from 5th July, 2016. Yes, remember the date because your world is going to change forever from this Tuesday.

India's Telecom regulator TRAI recently announced about its plans to launch a mobile app which will help consumers easily measure their internet speed on their smartphones and then send their results to the authority.

The mobile Application is being called the MySpeed App by TRAI and will be available from download from the mobile sewa app store from July 5th onwards.

According to a statement issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority, the app will allow users to measure their data speed experience and then convey the results to TRAI Analytics Portal. Along with the app, the portal is also scheduled to go Live on 5th July.

According to TRAI, the app will be capable of sending network, data speed, coverage information, along with device and the customer's location.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has officially defined a minimum internet speed that the telecom companies are liable to dispense to their consumers. However, inspite of this, Indian consumers always complain of dealing with poor internet speed. Recently during one of its drive test, the regulator was shocked to find out that Indian 3G customers of some of the operators were being provided with 2G internet speed most of the time in a few selected Indian cities.

Well, it seems, there are "acche din" ahead finally for all Indian Internet users. Hail TRAI!

Google to now rate your ISP's Video streaming quality

Watching a video online is a task for most of us. As soon as we click on a video to play, it starts buffering, then begins, then suddenly stops and starts buffering again and the cycle keeps on going like this. This leaves the viewer highly unsatisfied as the beauty of the clip somewhere dies due to the constant interruptions. But it seems Google has finally taken a note of our video woes and come to the rescue.

Google, the internet giant has now started rating Internet Service Providers’ (ISP) video streaming quality on a new website called - Google Video quality report. This step by Google can be seen as the most recent development in the constant blame game which goes on between content companies and broadband providers over who is responsible for the slow streaming speeds.

A typical YouTube video playback consists of a YouTube client (player) fetching video bytes in a streaming fashion from a YouTube server (CDN), in one or more requests (e.g. HTTP GET). The first step in determining ISP ratings is to measure the sustained speed at which these video bytes are transferred from server to the client.

The ratings represent the video streaming quality you can expect (at least 90% of the time) when you watch YouTube on an Internet Service Provider in a specific area. Google rate you ISPs in three categories as below -

• YouTube HD Verified: Users on YouTube HD Verified networks should expect smooth playback most of the time when watching high-definition YouTube videos (720p and above).



• Standard Definition: Users on networks rated as Standard Definition should expect smooth playback on standard-definition YouTube videos (360p) and may experience occasional interruptions on high-definition YouTube videos (720p and above).



• Lower Definition: Users on networks rated as Lower Definition may experience fuzzy picture quality and frequent interruptions while playing YouTube videos at 360p and above.

A link to the website showing the streaming quality of the ISP would immediately appear, whenever the buffering speed on YouTube would be slow.

According to the website, there are many factors which influence your video streaming quality, including your choice for Internet Service Provider. The website not only helps you learn about how your ISP performs but it also helps you in understanding your further options. The website which was launched in May has recently started gaining popularity.



The website also explains how a video reaches you in a nutshell. Whenever a user clicks play on a video on YouTube, it carries the data through its system to the user’s ISP via the most efficient path possible. Sometimes, they use less direct path during exceptional circumstances. The second step involves the user’s ISP receiving the user’s video from YouTube and then the ISP begins the important job of carrying it across their network to the user’s home. They must ensure that there is enough capacity when they receive the data from YouTube. Otherwise the user’s streaming quality would suffer.

The last step involves the video traveling in the user's house. In addition to the congestion in the user's ISP's network, the user’s video performance can also be affected by the size of the ISP’s connection into the user’s home, the user’s Wi-Fi setup, and other in-home factors such as connected devices.

The internet giant will rate the ISPs based on how quickly billions of hours YouTube videos watched every month load over thirty days and divide those results by provider and location to determine the quality of performance the viewers get 90 % of the time.

Google to now rate your ISP's Video streaming quality

Watching a video online is a task for most of us. As soon as we click on a video to play, it starts buffering, then begins, then suddenly stops and starts buffering again and the cycle keeps on going like this. This leaves the viewer highly unsatisfied as the beauty of the clip somewhere dies due to the constant interruptions. But it seems Google has finally taken a note of our video woes and come to the rescue.

Google, the internet giant has now started rating Internet Service Providers’ (ISP) video streaming quality on a new website called - Google Video quality report. This step by Google can be seen as the most recent development in the constant blame game which goes on between content companies and broadband providers over who is responsible for the slow streaming speeds.

A typical YouTube video playback consists of a YouTube client (player) fetching video bytes in a streaming fashion from a YouTube server (CDN), in one or more requests (e.g. HTTP GET). The first step in determining ISP ratings is to measure the sustained speed at which these video bytes are transferred from server to the client.

The ratings represent the video streaming quality you can expect (at least 90% of the time) when you watch YouTube on an Internet Service Provider in a specific area. Google rate you ISPs in three categories as below -

• YouTube HD Verified: Users on YouTube HD Verified networks should expect smooth playback most of the time when watching high-definition YouTube videos (720p and above).



• Standard Definition: Users on networks rated as Standard Definition should expect smooth playback on standard-definition YouTube videos (360p) and may experience occasional interruptions on high-definition YouTube videos (720p and above).



• Lower Definition: Users on networks rated as Lower Definition may experience fuzzy picture quality and frequent interruptions while playing YouTube videos at 360p and above.

A link to the website showing the streaming quality of the ISP would immediately appear, whenever the buffering speed on YouTube would be slow.

According to the website, there are many factors which influence your video streaming quality, including your choice for Internet Service Provider. The website not only helps you learn about how your ISP performs but it also helps you in understanding your further options. The website which was launched in May has recently started gaining popularity.



The website also explains how a video reaches you in a nutshell. Whenever a user clicks play on a video on YouTube, it carries the data through its system to the user’s ISP via the most efficient path possible. Sometimes, they use less direct path during exceptional circumstances. The second step involves the user’s ISP receiving the user’s video from YouTube and then the ISP begins the important job of carrying it across their network to the user’s home. They must ensure that there is enough capacity when they receive the data from YouTube. Otherwise the user’s streaming quality would suffer.

The last step involves the video traveling in the user's house. In addition to the congestion in the user's ISP's network, the user’s video performance can also be affected by the size of the ISP’s connection into the user’s home, the user’s Wi-Fi setup, and other in-home factors such as connected devices.

The internet giant will rate the ISPs based on how quickly billions of hours YouTube videos watched every month load over thirty days and divide those results by provider and location to determine the quality of performance the viewers get 90 % of the time.