Category: Internet

A revolutionary glass antenna, developed by Japanese company AGC in partnership with telecom giant NTT Docomo, has the potential to transform how 5G networks are deployed. Dubbed “WaveAntenna,” this innovative device can turn glass windows into 5G base stations, expanding network coverage in urban areas without the need for more towers.

Despite the ongoing roll-out of 5G for over four years, its coverage still lags behind 4G. The reason for this lies in the same technology that makes 5G faster—the higher frequency bands in the 24-100 GHz range. While these high frequencies reduce latency and boost speed, they have a shorter range compared to the lower frequencies used in 4G. As a result, 5G networks require a greater number of base stations to cover the same area as 4G, especially in densely populated urban environments where installing more towers is costly and complicated.

The internet, with its hundreds of billions of indexed webpages, serves as a vast repository of modern life. However, despite its immense utility, online content frequently disappears from view. A new analysis by the Pew Research Center highlights the transient nature of the web:

• Disappearing Content: As of October 2023, a quarter of all webpages that existed between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible. Most often, this happens when an individual page is deleted from an otherwise functional website. Older content is even more affected; 38% of webpages from 2013 are no longer available, compared to 8% of pages from 2023.

This phenomenon, known as “digital decay,” affects various online spaces. The Pew analysis examined links on government and news websites, as well as the “References” section of Wikipedia pages as of spring 2023, and found:

A quantum internet, offering unhackable communication, promises to securely transmit sensitive information like financial and national security data, distinct from the memes and cat pictures of today’s traditional internet. Building and scaling such quantum communication systems is a complex task, but scientists are steadily progressing. A recent breakthrough by a Harvard team marks a significant step forward. In a study published in Nature, the researchers report sending entangled photons between two quantum memory nodes 22 miles (35 kilometers) apart using existing fiber optic infrastructure under Boston’s busy streets.

“Demonstrating that quantum network nodes can be entangled in the real-world environment of a very busy urban area is an important step toward practical networking between quantum computers,” said Mikhail Lukin, the project leader and a physics professor at Harvard, in a press release.

In a groundbreaking development, scientists have achieved a significant milestone in building a “quantum internet” by creating a network of “quantum memories” operating at room temperature. The researchers successfully stored and retrieved two photonic qubits – quantum bits made from photons – marking a pivotal step towards the realization of a quantum internet.

Published in the Nature journal, Quantum Information, on January 15, the study emphasizes the importance of quantum memory as a foundational technology for the future quantum internet. Quantum memory, akin to classical computing memory, stores data as qubits, allowing for a superposition of 1 and 0. Quantum computers, with millions of entangled qubits, are anticipated to outperform current supercomputers by enabling simultaneous calculations.