Fastest-ever broadband transmission speeds achieved in Britain

A test of broadband speeds in London has yielded the fastest rate ever, fast enough to transmit 44 uncompressed high-definition films a second, experts say. Conducted jointly by British telecoms Alcatel-Lucent and BT over a 255-mile link between the BT Tower in central London and Ipswich, speeds of 1.4 terabits per second were achieved, the BBC reported Wednesday. The test was seen as confirmation that greater amounts of data can be sent through existing broadband infrastructure, freeing Internet service providers from the specter of expensive upgrades -- at least for the time being, experts said. "BT and Alcatel-Lucent are making more from what they've got," Oliver Johnson, chief executive of broadband analyst firm Point Topic, said. "It allows them to increase their capacity without having to spend much more money." Growing popularity of data-heavy online services such as film-streaming website Netflix has seen demand for higher bandwidth grow by around 35 percent every year, Alcatel-Lucent told the BBC.