Bell Labs researchers just broke the broadband Internet speed record.
It is eight times faster than the previous record -- and it was done over copper landlines.
With speeds of 10 gigabits per second, Bell Labs' technology proved to be 1,000 times faster than traditional broadband speeds. It is even 10 times faster than Google Fiber, which offers the fastest broadband available to consumers.
Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs' parent company, dubbed the new technology "XG-FAST." The company called it a "major breakthrough," giving broadband companies the ability to provide fiber-optic-like speeds over the existing copper landline infrastructure that blankets most of America.
Verizon, FiOS, Google Fiber and others have sought to bring ultra-fast fiber connections directly to people's homes. But the process is extremely expensive, and often involves digging up homeowners' yards. Providing fiber to the majority of American households could cost hundreds of billions -- or even trillions -- of dollars, depending on various estimates.
But Netflix and other bandwidth-hungry applications are forcing broadband providers' hands. Video over the Internet is cramping networks and slowing connection speeds.
Realizing they need a bigger pipe to carry all the data that customers demand, companies like Comcast and AT&T have increased the amount of fiber they use in their networks -- but they still use old-fashioned telephone lines and copper wires to bring Internet, TV and phone service to their customers' homes and offices.
New Internet speed record blows past Google Fiber 
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