In case you have learned of services like Google Fiber or Verizon FiOS, you understand that lots of technologists regard fiber optic Internet as the future. Fiber can provide Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, indicating a 100-fold improvement over the family average of today’s.

The quickest service of Comcast tops out at 505 megabits per second, about half of what fiber can produce at summit operation. But using a fresh processor being unveiled by the hardware business Broadcom, new cable modems will support speeds of 1 Gbps.

This year, the rollout to customers will start, Werner included. The more complex, 10 Gbps speeds are farther away, but the statement emphasizes the rivalry between much more conventional connectivity technologies and fiber. This past year, researchers demonstrated that DSL lines (remember those?) could be updated to support gigabit speeds, too. Given the cost of installing fiber straight to the house, many broadband suppliers may in the future use a mix of these technologies to increase your Internet speeds.