Enough drooling over other countries’ Internet connections; thanks to Internet2, there’s now an American network with a capacity of 100 gigabits per second.
Internet2 Reaches 100 Gbps
Of course, some jealousy may still be in order – it’s not like the average person will get to use to this infrastructure anytime soon. Internet2, a networking consortium, only intends to give researchers and other scholarly types early access. But we have its assurances that the technology is scalable, and is (or will be) cost-effective (blame press release-ese for the ambiguity).
So will Internet2’s network spread? Rich Ord, the CEO of murdok and publisher of Murdok, thinks so. “You have to assume that the rest of us sloughs would eventually be part of this somehow … somewhere,” he said. “Ultimately, you just can’t have an Internet slow lane with 99 percent of the Internet in it!”
What, then, will we do with these high speeds? To be honest, I’m not sure – I don’t have a pressing need to email anyone three DVD-quality movies per second. Still, just as car guys see no need to question the necessity of Ferraris, many tech-inclined individuals feel the same way about fast Internet connections.
They – and we – will be interested to see if Internet2 announces more progress at its spring 2008 meeting.
