AT&T highlights network’s need for speed in latest 1.6TB trial

AT&T ran a wavelength that carried two 800 Gigabit Ethernet circuits across 296 kilometers of its commercial long-distance fiber network, creating "a full, uninterrupted data path utilizing a single light frequency across the entire fiber length between two points.” Practically speaking, this means AT&T can brace itself for the incoming barrage of network traffic, which is set to double by 2028. Importantly, AT&T's trial took place “with other customers’ live traffic alongside it,” said Dell’Oro Group analyst Jimmy Yu. The 296-kilometer benchmark is also important, as it gets “harder and harder to increase the span length as the wavelength speed goes up.”