Silk Might Be The Reason 6G Internet Is Coming Sooner Than You Think Optical fiber already plays a big role in delivering gigabit internet to your devices. It's even more important for service providers where they deal with speeds in the hundreds of gigabits to route all sorts of traffic to the right destination. Wireless carriers are riding off the back of that fiber, feeding their over-the-air 5G networks through wireline fronthaul and backhaul feeds. But the future is 6G. The industry is gearing up for terabit speeds, and that means fiber-optic connections are gonna have to step up, potentially with new types of fiber. The same companies that promised remotely-driven robotic surgeries, virtual reality mainstreaming, and autonomous vehicle traffic management with 5G are now planning out 6G networks into the 2030s with a "Greatest Hits" compilation of the same promises. Okay. But to achieve everything they're envisioning, they'll have to ramp capacity and throughput by an order of magnitude at least across every last bit of infrastructure not to mention all of the devices we use at the very end of that pipeline. Glass and plastic have long been transmitting pulses of light through fiber-optic bundles. Each material has embedded advantages and flaws in their properties that make one better for home connections and the other better in data centers. The push to 6G has meant laboratory tests to get existing materials ready for terabit speeds. But research is now putting silk — yes, the stuff that comes from worms and spiders that's used to make fancy nightgowns — into the spotlight as a cost-effective building block of 6G that could bring the best of both glass and plastic. How silk might become part of 6G networks Silk might be known for its luxurious look and feel in clothing,