An Accelerated History of Internet Speed (Infographic)

The story of the internet so far has been one of both ever-faster speeds and ever-higher demand for connectivity. According to Cisco, worldwide internet traffic reached more than 20 exabytes per month in 2010. (An exabyte is a billion gigabytes.) The smart money says demand is only going to keep rising.

Fortunately, the physical infrastructure of the internet is equipped to handle it, at least for a while. The undersea cables we use now can be upgraded to move data at 100 gigabytes per second, about 10 times faster than current speeds. And a $1.5 billion project is underway to reduce the lag time of signals between London and Tokyo by 60 milliseconds using a fiberoptic cable in the Arctic Ocean, the first of its kind in that part of the world.

The infographic below, compiled by Gator Crossing, a Houston-based web hosting service provider founded in 2002, provides a history of the internet along with some facts even dedicated web geeks might not know. Such as the fact that as of 2010, about half of rural households in America did not have internet access at home. Where's Google Fiber when you need it?

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