Infinite Bandwidth Is Coming

In 2000, technology watcher George Gilder argued in a book called Telecosm that infinite bandwidth and instant communication were on the way, thanks to booming construction of fiber-optic cable. Eight years later, post-bust (both dot-com and telecom), the “telecosm” is not far from what Gilder predicted, writes Mark Williams in Technology Review.

The co-inventor of Ethernet told a recent telecom conference that 40- and 100-gigabit-per-second Ethernet is coming soon, and that a 1,000-gigabyte-per-second upgrade will arrive around 2015. But some industry members wonder just who will pay for these next-generation networks. Nevertheless, an analyst suggests that consumers can expect more bandwidth soon—pulling them ever closer to Gilder’s prediction. (More internet stories.)