With 5G technologies already being deployed, these days both academia and industry are focused on defining future 6G systems. Many times, we forget that the newest technologies, unfortunately, do not reach everyone and everywhere. In particular, rural areas, where optical fiber deployments are either not technically possible or financially advisable, high-speed internet access (like what you need to access not only streaming services, but more advanced platforms including the metaverse) is not available.
In our latest work published in Nature Electronics, we demonstrate a terahertz wireless link able to carry multi-gigabits-per-second streams at distances exceeding 2 kilometers. This is the longest terahertz link ever demonstrated and debunks the myth that the terahertz frequencies “are only good for very short distances.” With this, we prove that we can bridge the digital divide and provide rural ultrabroadband connectivity for everyone. This work is the result of a fruitful collaboration between Northeastern University, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
You can read the full paper, here.