How microwaves could help you surf the Internet at the speed of light

The drawback with microwave is low bandwidth. To get around that, their solution would rely on the microwave network between cities for web and data traffic for which minimal latency is important. Other things for which latency isn’t as critical, like video consumption (which is currently 78% of web traffic), could continue to use existing infrastructure, so congestion wouldn’t be an issue. Traditional fiber would be used to bring data to users up to 100km away from the microwave endpoints; even at that distance, the latency introduced by fiber would be minimal.

Source: How microwaves could help you surf the Internet at the speed of light | ITworld

Firms race to transmit Wall Street data at nearly light speed

Through a series of microwave towers, the dish beams market data 734 miles to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s computer warehouse in Aurora, Ill., in 4.13 milliseconds, or about 95% of the theoretical speed of light, according to the company.

Fiber-optic cables, which are made up of long strands of glass, carry data at roughly 65% of light speed.

via Firms race to transmit Wall Street data at nearly light speed – latimes.com.