Peter Lothberg, Sweden’s Computer Genius

Peter Lothberg’s mother, Sigritt Lothberg, was made famous by reputedly having the world’s fastest internet connection, at an astounding 40 gigabits per second in her home in Karlstad, Sweden. This revolutionary speed was the product of the efforts of her son in computer and information technology.

Peter Lothberg, born in 1960 in Karlstad, founded the telecommunications company named Swedish Telecom Development and Product Innovation (STUPI) in the 1970′s, serving as a computer consultant in his hometown. By the early 1980′s, Lothberg had moved to Stockholm, where he began developing a high-resolution laser printer and also started working on a private central mainframe. Lothberg was a key figure in the operation of the Arpa network, which was the skeleton for what would later be the internet. His technical know-how led to his prominence in the industry, and he was one of the leaders who worked on the Swedish University Computer Network Internet, later expanding to become a commercial network throughout the country.

Lothberg began pushing boundaries and winning against the odds by establishing a 34 megabit per second link across the Atlantic, despite criticisms that it was an impossible task. Providing his mother with what has been dubbed the world’s fastest broadband connection was due in part to Lothberg’s wanting to demonstrate the capabilities of the new optical fiber technology. This ultra-fast internet connection is because of a modulation technique that enables data to be transferred and connected from over 2,000 kilometers away with no third-party transponders. Lothberg also wanted to show the world that it is possible to build and operate such speeds over long distances, at a low production cost, and thus get investors interested and involved in the project. Since the 1990′s, Lothberg has been working for companies Cisco and Sprint in the United States, and has awards for his innovations and inventions in science and technology.