- The same country that implemented the fiber optics on a large scale has broken the Internet speed record in this year 2025. What is it?
- This record would imply being able to download the complete Movistar Plus+… in a single second!
- The first submarine fiber optic cable dates from the 80s of the twentieth century and supported 40,000 telephone calls simultaneously.
- Did you know that fiber optic cables are finer than human hair?
The evolution of this technology has caused a large number of uses and applications that a few years ago were unthinkable, thanks, among other issues, to the contribution of submarine cables, where 99% of world Internet traffic travels.
In this article we will deepen a series of curiosities about fiber optics from different perspectives, both from its composition, its historical origin or its different typologies.
Japan, first country to implement large -scale fiber optic networks
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Although the first use for telecommunications was carried out in 1977 in the United States, in the 80s, Japan was the first country that implemented networks of this large -scale technology.
In 2025, this country is again the protagonist with this technology since researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have reached a milestone in data transmission: 1.02 Petabits per second, which is translated are 125,000 gigabytes of data per second (GBPS), more than double the previous world record established in 2024 of 50,250 GPBs.
By contextualizing the magnitude of these figures, we could summarize it that all the content available in Movistar Plus+ would be downloaded in … a second!
As explained by the Interesting Engineering publication, this was achieved thanks to a fiber model that has 19 internal nuclei. This record does not have to do alone with the speed, but also with the distance, having achieved the transmission in a distance of about 1,800 kilometers (1,180 miles).
Finer than human hair
Within the types of optical fiber, there are differences in the size between multimodes fiber and monomode.
The multimode fiber has a larger diameter than the monomodo, covering a range that ranges between 50 and 100 micrometers (one thousandth of a millimeter).
For its part, the monomode cable is a single fiberglass post that has a diameter ranging from 8.3 to 10 microns.
As these figures are so lowercase, we could contextualize it with the size of the human hair that can range between 15 and 170 microns, although the most frequent are between 60 and 110.
Therefore, we can affirm that, despite variations depending on the type of fiber, the cables of this technology are smaller than human hairs.
The fiber trip through submarine cables
The enormous evolution that the progress in the submarine cables has can be observed in a fact that, although anecdotal, is representative.
The first connection for cables between America and Europe dates from 1858, specifically between Canada and the island of Ireland, when a telegraphic cable was put into operation by which Queen Victoria sent a congratulation to the US president of that time, James Buchanan. A communication that took 17 hours to arrive … and that for the time was great success.
From that first transoceanic connection to the present, the evolution of submarine cables has been enormous.
Something to which the optical fiber is not alien: in 1988 the TAT-8 was inaugurated, the first cable of this technology, with the capacity to support 40,000 simultaneous calls between France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
However, three years before-that is, in 1985-the optical fiber had already been used experimentally in the OPICAN-1 to test it and improve the techniques of deployment, operation and repair, a deployment that at a cost of 6.5 billion dollars was possible thanks to Telefónica and AT&T with which it was sought to improve the deficiencies that had been detected in the Pencan-2, which united the island cities of Santa Cruz de Santa. Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The enormous importance of underwater cables can be appreciated in a fact that we have already pointed out above: 99% of world Internet traffic does so through these, although not all are fiber optic.
Light trip
Unlike other technologies, the optical fiber transmits information through light pulses based on two physical phenomena: refraction and total internal reflection.
In this way, the luminous pulses are reflected internally without escaping, thus allowing efficient transmission to long distances of information without significant losses.
As a curiosity we can add that when you look at the optical fiber you can’t see the light. Moreover, it is counterproductive: and, since the light that circulates through the cable is not found in the visible spectrum – something to which its concentration and power should be added – can be harmful to the retina.
As we mentioned in a recent entry on the history of the optical fiber, the “paternity” of the optical fiber is shared.
On the one hand, Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany is considered “the father of fiber optics” while Chinese Charles Kuen Kao is the “father of fiber optic communications.”
