Verizon develops technology making Internet 1,000 times faster

Imagine Internet speed of 10 gigabits per second. That allows you to download a two-hour movie in just eight seconds. Yes, you read it right. Eight seconds. And that's no ordinary movie you're downloading. It's high-definition! At such clip, 1,000 photos can be uploaded in about two seconds.

While that may sound like fantasy, it's not far from reality. Verizon says it has just successfully tested a new technology that makes the Internet 1,000 times faster than the average home connection speed in the United States.  

"Deploying this exciting new technology sets a new standard for the broadband industry," said Verizon in a statement.

Currently, the fastest Internet speed in the US is two gigabits per second, offered by Comcast just last month. That pales in comparison with this new Verizon technology, which the company says can raise speeds up to 40 to 80 gigabits per second. This technology is also 10 times faster than that of Google Fiber, a subsidiary of newly-formed holding company Alphabet.

You might ask, how does Verizon's high-powered technology work? Verizon says it works by "simply adding new colors of light onto its existing fiber." Fiber optic cables send signals along tiny strands of glass, allowing data to be transmitted over long distances.

For now such technology is expected to gain traction among big businesses only, but once bandwidth-intensive technologies such as 4K video become widespread, Verizon says demand will rise. More people will also avail themselves of such superfast broadband service once the so-called Internet of Things takes off. In five years' time, some 25 billion devices will be connected to the Internet.

Testing has been done in Verizon's laboratory in Waltham, Massachusetts as well as from its office in Framingham, Massachusetts to a business location and to a house three miles away.

Verizon says upgrades to its fiber optic network will begin as soon as equipment for this new technology becomes available. Request for proposals for hardware and software to be used will be issued later this year.

Other wireless telecommunications providers, including Google Fiber, Alcatel-Lucent, and AT&T, are also expanding their own fiber networks. Last week, Google Fiber said it would lay 4,000 miles of fiber optic cables in San Antonio, Texas, its largest deployment to date.