The chief executive of broadband analyst firm Point Topic, Oliver Johnson, agreed, telling the BBC: "BT and Alcatel-Lucent are making more from what they've got ... It allows them to increase their capacity without having to spend much more money." Researchers used what is known as "flexigrid" infrastructure, creating an "alien super channel" made up of seven 200 gigabits per second (Gbps) channels. These channels – the paths that data travel between two nodes on a network – were combined to give a total capacity of 1.4 terabits per second. The gaps between these transmission channels were reduced, thereby increasing the channels' density, resulting in a 42.5 per cent increase in the efficiency of data transmission compared with current standard networks. Alcatel-Lucent optical marketing leader Kevin Drury likened the technique to decreasing the space between lanes on a busy freeway, allowing more lanes of traffic to travel on the same road. BT said the test, which was conducted on a 410-kilometre fibre link between central London and Ipswich in October and November, could help it to meet consumer and business demand for increased bandwidth.

Far from being just an excuse to stream endless hours of high-definition video, high-speed broadband can increase access to and productivity of healthcare, education and business, according to CSIRO studies. However, it is important to note the test was conducted on the backhaul, or core, network and does not equate to the speeds users would receive at home. In Australia, most internet connections still run on copper rather than fibre-optic cable. The Coalition government's fibre-to-the-node national broadband network (NBN) is under review, but will probably use a combination of copper and fibre. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised during the 2013 federal election that this would deliver minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second (Mbps), although NBN Co executive chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski has since withdrawn that guarantee. A strategic review of the NBN late last year claimed the fixed-line portion of the Coalition's NBN could achieve speeds of up to 250 Mbps by 2025 and 1 Gbps by 2030.