Wow. And you thought broadband was fast? Pshh, that’s so old-school. Associated Press is reporting that a group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken Internet speed records. In fact they’ve done it twice in two days.

So what does that mean? Well the researchers (aka; Uber-Geeks) have built what they call a “high-speed Internet2 network” that has the capability to send data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols. And that was only their first test. The second test using “modified protocols” gave the team the capability of sending data over the same 32,000-kilometre path at 9.08 Gbps. Holy smoking network batman!

That likely represents the current network’s final record because rules require a 10 per cent improvement for recognition, a percentage that would bring the next record right at the Internet2’s current theoretical limit of 10 Gbps.

However, the Internet2 consortium is planning to build a new network with a capacity of 100 Gbps. With the 10-fold increase, a high-quality version of the movie “The Matrix” could be sent in a few seconds rather than half a minute over the current Internet2 and two days over a typical home broadband line.

Researchers used the newer Internet addressing system, called IPv6, to break the records in December. Data started in Tokyo and went to Chicago, Amsterdam and Seattle before returning to Tokyo. The previous high of 6.96 Gbps was set in November 2005.