China rolls out "fastest internet network"

China claims it currently has the best internet network. HUAWEI was one of the entities behind the project.

File photo: HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro

How fast is China's newly launched internet network?

CNN said in a report Beijing’s “most advanced” internet network can travel at about 1.2 terabits (or 1,200 gigabits) each second. This is fast enough to transfer data from 150 movies in one second, according to HUAWEI.

The report noted that this "won't appear at consumers' homes anytime soon. But a more robust, faster internet service has broad implications for businesses, faster information transfers, stock trading advantages and other national security implications."

This latest backbone network was launched by HUAWEI and China Mobile in partnership with Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Cernet, which is an education and research network funded by the Chinese government.

A backbone network is a network infrastructure that moves internet traffic to different geographic locations and can support hungry data transfers from technologies such as 5G and electric vehicles.

This new technology runs on 1,800 miles of optic fiber cables between Beijing and the south.

Tests were conducted during the summer and is launching two years earlier than what was forecasted.

This came as President Joe Biden met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco last week for the APEC.

Xi has said the development of the backbone network will establish China as "a cyber power" and "accelerate the promotion of core Internet technologies," the press release said.

Wu Jianping, a professor at the department of computer science and technology Tsinghua University who is overseeing the project, said in the press release that the system, including software and hardware, was made in China, produced, and is independently controlled.

He called it "the most advanced network in the world."

This isn't the first time a major tech launch has coincided with a US visit. Huawei launched its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which features a breakthrough Chinese-made 5G chip, around the time some US officials visited Beijing this year.

The US government said it was investigating how the Chinese company would have the technology to make such a chip following its efforts to restrict China's access to foreign chip technology.

What do you think about this?

Via: CNN