Download a movie in four seconds – How your broadband speed could soon be 276 times faster

UK broadband customers could soon see a huge boost to their download speeds.

A new service has just been trailed in London which beams broadband into homes at speeds of up to 10Gb – that’s 276 times than current UK average.

At this speed, users would be able to download a full HD movie in around four seconds – the same film would take around an hour on a standard connection.

The test was performed by broadband firm Hyperoptic at the site of the London 2012 Athletes’ Village and it was done using an existing ISP network, not a new, dedicated line.

Sharon White, Ofcom Chief Executive, was in attendance to witness this glimpse of the UK’s digital future.

Speaking about the test Ms White said: “The amount of internet data used by people in the UK is growing by around half every year. So we’ll increasingly need full-fibre broadband services like this to provide faster, more reliable connections and capacity to our homes and offices.

“We’re seeing real momentum behind full-fibre, with bigger and bolder commitments from companies of all sizes to build broadband that can support the UK’s digital future.”

The trial was carried out with the UK’s Build to Rent pioneer, Get Living, who own and manage 1,500 homes for rent at East Village, on the doorstep of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London.

Since the neighbourhood opened its doors in 2013, Hyperoptic has supplied its residents with gigabit connections but the trial shows its network is able to go much, much faster.

The Hyperoptic 10Gb trial testing is based on its leading full fibre technology, where the fibre optic network goes all the way into the customer’s home.

Speaking about the technology Dana Tobak, CEO, Hyperoptic, explains: “We have carried out this trial to elevate the debate in a largely stagnate industry.

“While the market incumbents focus on sweating their copper assets and lobbying the likes of the ASA to convince them that its acceptable to market their Fibre-to-the-Cabinet services as ‘fibre,’ we are proudly setting a new standard.  

“With full fibre our customers across 30 UK towns and cities can enjoy symmetrical gigabit services today. This 10Gb test proves that our network can scale in the future.”

With a 10Gb connection, HD and 4K downloads and uploads are practically instantaneous – even with multiple, heavy users. For example, with 10Gb you can:

Download a standard HD movie file (5GB) in 4 seconds, compared to 6 minutes 40 seconds on a 100Mb connection

Download a 25GB Xbox game in 20 seconds, compared to 33 minutes 20 seconds on a 100Mb connection

Download the latest full 4K ultra high definition movie (75 GB) in just 1 minute, compared to 1 hour 40 minutes on a 100Mb connection

There’s no word on when this new service will be available to paying consumers but Hyperoptic now joins the growing race to improve the UK’s broadband.

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5G is next generation of mobile signal which will bring faster speeds to the smartphones of the future.

However, Samsung says that 5G could also be used to beam superfast speeds into homes across the world.

The reason 5G is so much faster is that it has a much larger bandwidth which basically means more data can be beamed to more people at much faster speeds.

5G could transform broadband in the UK with speeds of over 20Gbps a genuine possibility – this would allow users to download full 4K movies and games in seconds.