NBN Co and Nokia have just pulled off an online speed test that will have any internet lover salivating.
On the live fibre network (as in, the network that’s currently rolled out across Australia, and not in a lab testing environment), NBN Co achieved a gobsmacking speed of 83Gbps.
That’s unbelievably fast. That’s, by my calculations, the entirety of Grand Theft Auto V (for PC) downloaded in just 10 seconds, or the entirety of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) in 20 seconds, extra files included. That’s any Netflix show buffered and ready to go almost instantly. It’s so mind-bogglingly fast that your modem, computer, and phone would probably be incapable of achieving such speeds.
Naturally, such a test would require some pretty sophisticated tech — and that’s where Nokia comes in — a network partner of NBN that has pivoted from phones to business networking in recent years. Nokia provided the prototype technology the test was performed with, with combined signals from 10Gbps, 25Gbps, 50Gbps, and 100Gbps running across a single NBN fibre connection. The test was performed between an NBN exchange building and an unoccupied home with fibre.
“The NBN Fibre has the capability to support the speed that people will want into the future,” NBN Co chief technology officer Andrew Leong told Gizmodo Australia.
“We’re putting a lot of effort into extending how many houses have fibre.”
Unfortunately, NBN Co isn’t looking to sell plans capable of such speeds anytime soon, nor are such fast speeds even available to commercial customers.
It’s more of a test to show what the NBN fibre network is capable of, and that even as the technology around the network evolves, the fibre network will be able to keep up. Last week, NBN Co’s head of customer strategy and innovation, Doctor Robert Joyce, told Gizmodo Australia the fibre that’s rolled out at the moment (and is being rolled out with free home upgrades) would be perfect for upgrades for the next “10, 15, 50 years” and that the only thing that might change is the modem at the end.
It’s also a great test for NBN Co to pull off with its NBN 500 upgrade for fibre homes with NBN 100 plans coming up next year.
My jaw is still on the floor at those speeds. With speeds like that, having to cull my hard drive to install huge games would be nowhere near as painful.
Image: iStock, Universal