Verizon’s new, experimental FiOS service is 10 times faster than Google Fiber

Verizon’s new, experimental FiOS service is 10 times faster than Google Fiber

Verizon’s FiOS network is already capable of top speeds of 500 megabits per second, which lets you download an HD movie in about 15 seconds. But the FiOS of tomorrow could be as much as 20 times faster than even those blazing speeds.

Verizon has just finished testing a next-generation fiber-optic Internet technology that allows the company to transfer data at rates of 10 gigabits per second. For those keeping track, that’s 10 times faster than even Google Fiber, which offers some of the speediest fiber you can buy today.

Verizon believes its new technology, called NG-PON2 — short for “next-generation passive optical network” — could eventually grow to support speeds of 80 Gbps. That’s thousands of times faster than what most average U.S. households get today.

Fiber-optic cables work by sending data that’s been encoded as packets of light. NG-PON2 transmits the data using certain wavelengths of light that can handle 10 Gbps of capacity each, according to a company release.

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