London broadband provider G.Network plans to launch 10Gbps home broadband in September, alongside a slightly less ridiculous 2.5Gbps package. The services will be offered across parts of its central London Full Fibre network, although prices and the equipment supplied have not yet been announced.
Ten gigabits per second is 10,000Mbps, or ten times the headline speed of an ordinary gigabit connection. Under perfect conditions, it could theoretically download a 100GB game in around 80 seconds. Network overheads mean the speed advertised to customers is more likely to sit somewhere around 7Gbps to 8Gbps.
Even that is absurdly fast by normal household standards. Netflix recommends 15Mbps for a 4K stream, so a 10Gbps connection has enough capacity for more than 600 of them. A PlayStation 5 has a 1Gbps Ethernet port, while online gaming uses surprisingly little bandwidth and won’t suddenly have one-tenth of the latency.
Image Credit: Capacity Global
Inside the G.Network headquarters on Southwark Bridge Road, London
Your devices will be the speed limit
To use the full connection on one computer, you would need a router with 10Gbps ports, suitable Ethernet cabling and a computer fitted with a 10Gbps network connection. Most household devices have 1Gbps ports, while even many expensive computers and premium motherboards stop at 2.5Gbps.
Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t automatically solve the problem either. Wireless speeds fall with distance, interference and the capabilities of the receiving device. The few homes that could genuinely use 10Gbps are likely to contain powerful servers, large network storage systems or people regularly transferring enormous video and production files.
G.Network says 395,000 London premises are now ready to connect, up from 375,000 in June. The provider emerged from administration earlier this year and says it is now cashflow positive, with its owner promising further investment. The 10Gbps package looks designed to attract wealthier customers, and nobody should expect it to be cheap.
