The Internet might actually become a literal series of Tubes... https://phys.org/news/2020-11-air-filled-fiber-cables-capable-outperforming.... H. Sakr et al.: Hollow core optical fibres with comparable attenuation to silica fibres between 600 and 1100 nm, Nature Communications, 11(1), 6030 (2020); DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19910-7 https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D1403 Nested Anti-resonant Nodeless Fibre (NANF) University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Center have demonstrated that guiding light through air filled fibers offers a potential way to overcome this insurmountable attenuation limit set by the glass’s scattering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE tubes Old dotbomb way would be p2p punks today securing cheap IDRU's and ROW over old glut fiber to be lit 20yr from now. New BTC way... lay your own, or go RF. " For over 50 years, pure or doped silica glass optical fibres have been an unrivalled platform for the transmission of laser light and optical data at wavelengths from the visible to the near infra-red. Rayleigh scattering, arising from frozen-in density fluctuations in the glass, fun- damentally limits the minimum attenuation of these fibres and hence restricts their appli- cation, especially at shorter wavelengths. Guiding light in hollow (air) core fibres offers a potential way to overcome this insurmountable attenuation limit set by the glass's scattering, but requires reduction of all the other loss-inducing mechanisms. Here we report hollow core fibres, of nested antiresonant design, with losses comparable or lower than achievable in solid glass fibres around technologically relevant wavelengths of 660, 850, and 1060 nm. Their lower than Rayleigh scattering loss in an air-guiding structure offers the potential for advances in quantum communications, data transmission, and laser power delivery. "