FiOS, you ain't got nothing on this: Alcatel-Lucent researchers in France have successfully transmitted optical data at an absolutely blazing sped of 16.4 Tbps over a distance of over 1,500 miles.The transmission was done with the goal of achieving a 100 Gbps Ethernet connection, which, as I'm sure you'd agree, is a goal we can all get behind. All sorts of fancy, confusion-sounding technologies were used to get the blazing optical transmission, including "a highly linear, balanced optoelectronic photoreceiver and an ultra-compact, temperature-insensitive coherent mixer." I kept telling them that they just needed a more balanced optoelectronic photoreceiver! I'm glad they finally listen ...