China’s hollow-core fiber trial pushes 51.3 Tb/s over 128 miles without signal regeneration — milestone targets AI-era networking bottlenecks

China Telecom, YOFC, and Dekoli have achieved a groundbreaking milestone by transmitting an astonishing 51.3 terabits per second over 206.5 kilometers using hollow-core fiber without needing signal regeneration. This breakthrough harnesses 1.2 terabits per wavelength through wavelength division multiplexing, bypassing the need for repeaters or remote-pumped amplifiers. This accomplishment is crucial for addressing the burgeoning data demands of AI and other high-bandwidth applications, signaling a major step forward in overcoming current networking limitations.