Academics push broadband to the limit

While web connections of around 10MB per second have proved adequate for innovative online services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), the academic world is set to gain access to much faster speeds.

The Internet2 network offered by Level 3 Communications is aiming to link up universities, corporations and research groups and allow them to share vast amounts of data at speeds up to 100GB/s - equivalent to a one million MB/s connection.

This is set to be first used to allow data transfer from the world's largest particle collider near Geneva which is to open next year.

The project is planning to examine the origin of matter creation and is expected to generate much interest in its results from scientists, which has led to the high speed connection being set up to cope with the amount of data that will have to be shared.

Doug Van Houweling, Internet2's chief executive, told the Associated Press: "It's now possible for a single computer to have a 10GB connection and we needed to have a way of making sure that those kinds of demanding applications could be served at the same time as all the normal uses."

While such high internet speeds remain out of reach for the home or business net user, the Internet2 network provides a glimpse into what could be possible for both broadband and VoIP in the future.

And with Level 3 suggesting that capacity of their network could be boosted to 400GB/s in years to come; it may not be too long before video conferencing is available in DVD quality.