Verizon says it has managed to push 10 gigabits per second through its industry-leading fiber-optic network, known as FiOS. In the test the company says it even managed to push 1 gigabit per second to a customer's house.

That's an astounding torrent of data – about 1,000 times faster than the average 10-Mbps connection in U.S. households today.

Verizon trumpeted the test as proof that its gamble on building out a large fiber-optic network will pay off in the future, as user needs for bandwidth outstrip the capabilities of cable and DSL.

At the customer's home, the optical network terminal (ONT) received the 10/2.5 Gbps feed and used two data communication ports to simultaneously provide transmission speeds of close to 1 Gbps to each of two PCs inside the home. Combined, the two ports delivered approximately 1.85 Gbps in aggregate bandwidth in each direction. Tests were designed to simulate what two different customers might experience while using their PCs to download, upload or share files to the Internet when served by a 10G PON system. In addition, speed tests were performed to Verizon's speed test server located more than 400 miles away in Reston, Va., realized speeds of up to 915 Mbps between the PC and the speed test server.

That test shoved four times as much data through FiOS as it had before, the company said.

Now, FIOS customers aren't going to be getting 1-Gbps speeds anytime soon (and it's doubtful that anyone could actually handle that much data right now). But they can currently get 50-Mbps plans for $140 a month. Comcast offers similar speeds in some areas through its cable network, but that's getting close to the physical limitations of nonoptical transmission lines and is hampered by the shared nature of cable connections.

It's clear that the future of internet access will be a combination of wireless and fiber – which has nearly infinite capacity, because broadband providers typically lay more cable than they can actually use in the foreseeable future when they dig the trenches.

Verizon, however, is the only one of the nation's large ISPs that has made a strong commitment to fiber, a decision that Wall Street punished the company for years.

Now the company is taking a moment to gloat and to aim barbs at cable companies and Google – which promised to build a few test networks for select communities in the United States that will have a 1-Gbps capacity.

No, an individual customer won’t get those speeds any time soon; the idea is to add capacity to the delivery system. The engineers DID, however, link two PCs to symmetrical 1Gbps links and delivered service close to 1Gbps in each direction to those machines. [See, Google? We get the picture.] Both Verizon’s High Speed Internet running at up to 7.1 Mbps and FiOS Internet involve no shared “pipelines” as do Cable’s feeds. There’s no network congestion between "school’s out" time until bedtime, as can happen on Cable. So take this fiber testing of Verizon’s FiOS network as a moment to reflect on the surge in bandwidth demand that’s already happening, and has been happening since dial up. And if the future demand scares you, think "fiber."

Photo: Fiber-optic cables

Adrienne Serra

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