FB Takes Leap Towards Light-Based Net

                Scientists at Facebook’s Connectivity Lab have developed a new way to detect light signals travelling through the air, and advance that may lead to fast optical wireless networks capable of delivering internet service to remote places. High-speed wired communication networks today use lasers to carry information through optical fibers, but wireless networks are based on radio frequencies or microwaves. In the new study, the researchers demonstrated a method to use fluorescent materials instead of traditional optics to collect light and concentrate it onto a small photo-detector. They combined this light collector, which features 126 sqcm of surface that can collect light from any direction, with existing telecommunications technology to achieve data rates of achieve data rates of more than 2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps).