AT&T said Monday it has switched on its high-speed backbone network, which it claims will transmit data traffic across the country four times faster the current backbone. AT&T has begun placing traffic on its so-called ultra-long haul network, which boasts a capacity of 40 gigabits per second, meaning people will be able to download large files faster and stream multimedia content, like online videos, more easily to their computers.
Carriers have been upgrading the backbone network, the underlying fiber optic pipes needed to move data across extremely long distances, to meet the increasing demand in bandwidth-intensive programs and videos.
“As the demand for Internet and IP-based applications continues to explode, IP traffic on the AT&T network has doubled throughout the past two years, and we fully expect this substantial growth to continue in the future,” John Stankey, president of telecom operations at AT&T, said in a statement.
AT&T has upgraded 50,000 miles of its network and plans to connect 25 major metropolitan areas in the next several months.
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