America's fastest internet speed crushed as Japan sets staggering new record

Japan just left the rest of the world buffering. Researchers in Japan say they have set a new world record for the fastest internet speed—over 125,000 gigabytes of data per second over 1,120 miles.

According to Live Science, that's "about 4 million times the average internet speed in the U.S. and would allow you to download the entire Internet Archive in less than four minutes." The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving every corner of the internet.

This figure is also more than twice the previous world record, set in 2024 by another team of scientists in the UK.

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According to a statement from Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, the achievement was unveiled during the 48th Optical Fiber Communication Conference on April 3.

Scientists built a new form of optical fiber to send information at mind-boggling speeds over roughly the distance between New York and Florida, Live Science reports.

The new cable fits 19 separate fibers into a tiny width of just 0.127 millimeters, the same size as most current single-fiber cables. This means it can carry much more data without needing to change the existing infrastructure.

In March 2023, the same team achieved similar data speeds, but only over less than a third of the distance. The main challenges in increasing the range were reducing data loss over long distances and finding a way to boost the signal, according to the statement.

This achievement marks a victory in creating long-distance, high-capacity optical communication systems that can grow with demand, helping to meet the world's rising need for data, the statement said.

With global data traffic expected to rise sharply in the near future, new communication infrastructure may be needed. The team in Japan now plans to explore how their work could be used in real-world telecommunications, according to the statement.

Broadband internet in the United States has steadily improved over the years, but speed and access still vary depending on location, provider and infrastrcture.

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According to Statista, the median download speed for fixed broadband internet in the US is 289.34 Mbps, courtesy of fiber-optic networks and 5G expansion. Upload speeds can sometimes lag behind, though.