# China Telecom team sends 64 Tbit/s over 1,007.48 km of hollow-core fibre on a live trunk line

- Published: 2026-11-09 15:02 UTC
- Section: Digital & Computing › Connectivity & internet
- Tags: hollow-core optical fibre, 64 Tbit/s, China Telecom, 1007.48 km trunk line, low-latency network, bidirectional transmission, Shenzhen–Hong Kong line, solid-core fibre comparison
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-e7ef683d96ee88243cd168c6_china_telecom_team/

**A Chinese team including China Telecom engineers demonstrated bidirectional transmission over hollow-core fibre, with a signal delay of 3.43 ms over the whole link.**

![China Telecom team sends 64 Tbit/s over 1,007.48 km of hollow-core fibre on a live trunk line](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/1f219e4d47333b9c.png)
*pravda.ru*

A Chinese team that included China Telecom engineers and other researchers has carried out a data transmission over hollow-core optical fibre on a real trunk line 1,007.48 km long. According to pravda.ru, a 64 Tbit/s signal was sent in both directions at the same time, which the report describes as a world first [1]. The signal delay over this distance was 3.43 ms [1]. In the publication's conversion, 64 Tbit/s corresponds to uploading and downloading 160 4K films of 50 GB each in one second [1].

## How hollow-core fibre differs from conventional fibre

Most cables in service have a solid silica core. Glass absorbs part of the signal energy and scatters it, and light travels more slowly in glass than in vacuum or air [1].

In hollow-core fibre the core is a gas-filled channel, and light propagates mainly through air. For long-haul lines this requires tight control of the geometry of the microscopic cavities in the glass, the gas composition and the quality of the joints, because any imperfection causes signal loss [1]. Earlier hollow-core experiments were usually run over very short distances or at low data rates [1].

## Comparison with existing fibre and first use

Compared with the best solid-core fibres available today, hollow-core fibre doubles throughput and extends transmission distance by 60 percent, the report says [1]. Compared with previous successful hollow-core tests, the distance of the new result is 50 times greater [1].

Ho Xiaoli, chief expert on next-generation information and communication networks at China Telecom, noted that sending a signal through gas reduces delay by 30 percent compared with conventional glass [1].

The technology is already in commercial use. The first cross-border commercial leased financial line, between Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Hong Kong, runs on hollow-core optical fibre [1]. It is a paid channel used for financial transactions, where signal delay affects results [1]. The publication stresses that a successful demonstration on one line does not mean existing glass cables will be replaced by hollow-core ones [1].

## Sources

1. [pravda.ru](https://www.pravda.ru/news/science/2439905-china-hollow-core-fiber-record)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-e7ef683d96ee88243cd168c6_china_telecom_team/