[jlgaddis]

In the past, the "Internet speed record" was measured in units such as "terabit meters-per-second":

> ... they had managed to send nearly 840 gigabytes of data across a distance of 16,346 kilometers (10,157 miles) in less than 27 minutes, at an average speed of 4.23 gigabits per second.

> This was equal to 69,073 terabit meters per second (or 69,073 trillion bits sent through one meter in a second), which exceeded the previous record set by CalTech and CERN earlier this year. [0]

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> The team successfully transferred data at a rate of 8.80Gbps, which is equal to 264,147 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s). [1]

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> Internet2 ... has this week announced a stunning new record speed of 9.08Gbps - equal to 272,400 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s) [2]

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No idea if it's still done that way or not but I don't see any mention of distance in this article (haven't looked at the paper).

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[0]: https://www.cnet.com/news/internet-speed-record-broken/

[1]: http://www.startap.net/translight/pages/applications/2006/da...

[2]: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/the-speed-fantasy/story...

[rejberg]

> In the past, the "Internet speed record" was measured in units such as "terabit meters-per-second":

I like this unit better, because then a jetliner full of hard drives could be a valid competitor.

[ChuckMcM]

Which is exactly why it was chosen, the 'purpose' of networks is moving data from point A to point B so the 'goodness' of networks is how much data from point A to point B and how far away is point A from point B.

Then the Internet became a transport for time sensitive data (movies, voice, Etc.) and so the latency between bits gets wedged in sometimes.