The Internet has become a global, complex, layered, and increasingly indispensable ecosystem. For purposes of this column, “Internet” includes the underlying digital transport infrastructure including subsea and land-based fiber and cable, orbiting satellites, the networks of routers, the Domain Name System, datacenters and their networks, edge devices of all kinds (laptops, desktops, pads, smartphones, Internet-enabled devices, and sensors), the World Wide Web, content distribution systems and, for all I know, the kitchen sink.
The submarine internet cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world has been repaired, five weeks after an underwater volcanic eruption hit the tiny Pacific island nation.
Across the Pacific, undersea cables weave between island nations, bringing them online and, in some cases, connecting them to Australia, but some governments fear this interconnectivity comes with risk.
Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have broken the internet speed record with a stunning 319 terabits per second. That’s double the previous record of 178 Tb/s set a year ago by engineers in Japan and the U.K.
Millions of homes and businesses access global networks through the cost-efficient Passive Optical Network (PON) technologies standardized by ITU. The next generation, known as “Higher Speed PON”, will provide for speeds of 50 Gbit/s per wavelength, up from the 10 Gbit/s of its predecessors.
The satellite Internet industry has taken off at great speed in the last year, as companies like SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon each work to build satellite-based networks consisting of thousands of small individual satellites. SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 of its Starlink high-speed Internet satellites to date and now has permission from the FCC to launch 12,000 satellites in the first phase of its deployment. While SpaceX has led the way, we are seeing OneWeb and Amazon follow at breakneck speed, as each of them strives to connect the unconnected parts of the world.
Improved Internet connectivity and skills have helped many countries to cope with the health and economic crisis from COVID-19. Yet the pandemic has raised the bar for the digital transition and underscores the need to close the digital divides that risk leaving some people and firms worse off than others in a post-COVID world, according to a new OECD report.
