A Bell Labs team used organic molecules to achievea new speed record for modulating a laser fiber optic signal.

"We achieved a practical, useful bandwidth of between 150 gigahertz and 200 gigahertz," Lee told United Press International. "Even in the worst-case scenario, we were at about 110 gigahertz, which is about three times better than (cutting-edge semiconductor modulators)."

Currently available modulators run at 10 Ghz. While this latest breakthru is not ready to be incorporated into commercial products it demonstrates that communications speeds will continue to increase by orders of magnitude.