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World's fastest Internet connection in the Netherlands

Next month the University of Twente will launch its latest flagship project: the construction of the world's fastest Internet connection.

It will be available for all staff and resident students, with a speed of up to 1 gigabit per second. The only known civilian rival is at the Google campus in Stanford.

The network was constructed by the University IT department and Students Net Twente, a student association. The University has history of breaking Internet boundaries: it built (at the time) the Netherlands' fastest Internet connection 10 years ago, with a 100 megabit connection.

According to the President of Students Net Twente, Robert Dahmen, the new super-fast connection offers real-time benefits: "Back in the early days, you used to have to wait three minutes for a YouTube video to start playing, even now it still takes a few seconds, but with a gigabit network the video starts playing immediately. Even boring things like Windows updates are significantly faster."


University of Twente, 3D-animation

The campus uses a fibre optic loop system to link all its site facilities. Copper wires connect these nodes to the university buildings and student flats.

A word of caution though for Twente students: there will still be a limit of 50GB a week usage to limit abuse of the system.

 

James Shaw

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James Shaw

James is an assistant editor at IamExpat, and is the newest member of the team. Interests include travelling, parties, and his beloved Manchester United. From Manchester, UK, but now living...

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