Emmanuel OchayiChina has catapulted into the digital stratosphere, surpassing global expectations by launching the world’s premier next-generation Internet service, boasting speeds over 10 times faster than current major routes.
The network unveiled two years ahead of industry predictions, achieves data transmission rates of 1.2 terabits per second between Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou.
“China’s leap in Internet speed isn’t just monumental; it’s a game-changer,” remarked FITI Project Leader Wu Jianping from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, emphasizing the significance of this achievement.
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In contrast, Nigeria and other African countries continue to grapple with sluggish Internet speeds. Despite initiatives like Starlink and 5G infrastructure deployment, Sub-Saharan Africa lags with an average download speed of 12.11 Mbps, according to a Cable.co.uk report.
“Nigeria, ranking 133rd globally with a mere 20.83 Mbps download speed, reflects the challenges faced by many African nations,” lamented experts.
China’s cutting-edge network, spanning over 3,000 kilometers of optical fiber cabling, resulted from a decade-long collaboration between Tsinghua University, China Mobile, Huawei Technologies, and Cernet Corporation. The Beijing-Wuhan-Guangzhou connection is part of China’s Future Internet Technology Infrastructure (FITI), marking a milestone in the evolution of the national China Education and Research Network.
“This ultra-fast line isn’t merely operational; it furnishes China with the groundwork to forge an even speedier Internet,” asserted Huawei Technologies Vice-President Wang Lei.
Describing the backbone network as a digital superhighway, Xu Mingwei from Tsinghua University drew an analogy between the new Internet infrastructure and a single superfast train track replacing ten regular tracks for data transfer.
China foresees the network’s role in national education, research, and burgeoning data needs in various sectors, including industrial 5G applications like connected vehicles and mining operations.
With China’s stride in Internet technology, the global digital divide widens, underscoring the urgency for other nations to catch up with this monumental leap in connectivity.
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