Download GTA VI in less than a second? Japan’s internet speed can make it happen now

In a major breakthrough for the future of global communications, a team of international researchers led by Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Sumitomo Electric Industries has achieved the world’s fastest long-distance optical data transmission. The team successfully sent data at a rate of 1.02 petabits per second over a distance of 1,808 kilometres, using a specially designed 19-core optical fibre.

To put it into perspective, this distance is roughly equal to the journey from Sapporo to Fukuoka in…