Blistering bytes

The Internet’s speed is no longer being held back by the limited capacity of national and international networks, say computer scientists. Last week they claimed a new “land speed” record for data. The team sent 625 megabytes, the equivalent of an entire CD-ROM, from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to the University of Amsterdam in a mere 13 seconds, using the Internet2 academic network and a transatlantic fibre-optic cable. They found that the average speed of 401 megabits per second—a record for PC to PC transmission—was limited only by the local connections to the computers at each end.…