Same fibre network, more traffic (Image: Fancy/Alamy)

THERE are few facets of society that have remained untouched by the internet. From business communication to leisure activity, the net has transformed the way we behave.

Yet at its heart the internet has stagnated. As a slew of bandwidth-hungry services come on-stream, the fibre-optic backbone that forms its trunk routes are at risk of becoming overwhelmed by too much data. It’s due for an upgrade.

The first inklings of what the upgrade might look like can be seen in an ultra-fast 900-kilometre fibre-optic link between Paris in France and Frankfurt in Germany …