New, superfast internet

[dafoe]

I could have sworn there was a post here about this already. But for life of me I can't find it. So I apologize if this is a double post.

But Cisco has developed a new router capable of moving 332 TB per second.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100309/ts_alt_afp/uscompanytechnologyinternetcisco

I'm not enough of a geek to understand what any of this means, but I am drooling at the thought of superfast internet. What does this mean for the average user in terms of actual speed? When will we see it become available? How is this technically possible using existing lines, or is it?

Anybody have any idea?

[jagabo]

It doesn't mean much of anything to the average user:

The new Cisco hardware is for the backbones of telecom firms and other Internet service providers

It does mean bandwidth should continue to get cheaper (for the ISPs anyway) in the future. But we already knew that.

[deadrats]

I could have sworn there was a post here about this already. But for life of me I can't find it. So I apologize if this is a double post.

But Cisco has developed a new router capable of moving 332 TB per second.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100309/ts_alt_afp/uscompanytechnologyinternetcisco

I'm not enough of a geek to understand what any of this means, but I am drooling at the thought of superfast internet. What does this mean for the average user in terms of actual speed? When will we see it become available? How is this technically possible using existing lines, or is it?

Anybody have any idea?

i actually posted the story some days ago, i believe in the computer hardware/software sub-forum. regardless, it's 322 terabits, not 322 terabytes (as the "TB" abbreviation implies).

as for the technical questions, it means little for the average user, all it means is that the router is capable of moving great amounts of data, said data still has to be transported to other routers, switches, computers, etc.

and no, current lines, even optical fiber ones, i don't believe are capable of transporting that amount of data.

[RabidDog]

Only 322 terabits .. dang I was getting really excited there. Maybe of greater note is the fact that Ma bell, has managed to get her researchers to get 300mbits per second over copper.. has to be local to the exchange (1KM) but drops off in speed and distance as well (RFF-DSL) .. so makes fiber deployment even less likely. Especially after Verizon said they were halting all new fiber for the next five years. But that, of course, could be a ploy to get some nice fat juicy pork.

Actually current lines could easily carry that traffic, it would just take them a bit longer.. that router is only three times faster than one they rolled out seven years ago... pretty slow, incremental improvement really.