It has long been thought that fibre optic cables could handle almost limitless streams of data. Light travelling down a glass fibre cable can carry almost unimaginable quantities of information – however it is now thought that we are already nearing the limits of the current technology.

Researchers are now urgently pushing to innovate new, higher-bandwidth cables which will future proof how we share data as we head into the new decade. This will not be the first time that the fibre optic platform has been re-engineered to allow for greater transmission; yet it was never thought possible that we would be pushing the existing technology to such limits so quickly. Laboratory results now illustrate these limits with controlled data-flow tests pushing cables to near their capacity.

The recent surge in high definition streaming, data sharing, device interconnectivity and other such reliance on the global fibre network has called to light just how much bandwidth needs handling on a daily basis. Many top researchers in this area believe small gains can be achieved in adjusting the way light signals are encoded, although major gains will require new fibres.

With worldwide bandwidth demand rapidly on the rise, it is clear that markets will soon be taking full advantage of the supply-demand link. Bandwidth could soon become as valuable of a commodity as water or power, which will have implications on everyone. This is set to be amplified further in the following years, with the introduction of 3D streams, ‘4k’ HD video and a general increase in traffic congestion online.

These changes are set to effect home users in the not so distant future, however commercial internet/network speeds will remain at the forefront of technological developments and so push through largely unharmed. The professional IT industry will always remain highly connected, as online operations are core to all business activities.

As a leading dedicated server, colocation and online backup provider in the UK, Netwise Hosting will always take a customers bandwidth requirements very seriously. With bandwidth allowances guaranteed as part of our SLA, you can be sure that your global reach remains unharmed into the future, with our high speed direct fibre lines providing seamless access to the international network backbone.