BT claims 2Tbps record on fibre network
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BT claims 2Tbps record on fibre network

BT has claimed a world record for data transmission speeds on a live core network between London and Dublin.

The operator – in partnership with Huawei – said it has achieved speeds of 2Tbps over an optical core network link spanning over 700km between London and Dublin. 

In addition it claims to have reached 5.6Tbps over a single optical fibre running on its trial network between its research facility in Adastral Park and the BT Tower in London. The 5.6Tbps speeds are said to be the equivalent of downloading 200 high-definition movies per second. 

"It's important that our core networks keep pace with the growth in bandwidth demands driven by take-up of high-speed fibre broadband, HD content, 4G smartphones and tablets and in the future, 5G services," said Howard Watson, CEO of BT technology, services and operations. 

"So we're investing in our core, as well as in high-speed access technology such as fibre broadband, to make sure there is no capacity crunch and [to] deliver the best possible speeds to customers," he added.

Its vendor partner Huawei is said to have used terabit superchannels which means the operator’s network does not need to rely on the existing infrastructure. As a result BT does not need to lay additional cables which would have increased deployment costs. 

Zha Jun, president of Huawei’s fixed network product business, said: “Ultra-high-speed optical networks are an indispensable infrastructure for the future of digital life, and this is an area where Huawei is investing, to help telcos such as BT squeeze as much capacity out of their core networks as possible.” 

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