Cisco just announced its CRS-3, a blazing fast router. It moves 322 terabits per second, can download the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in one second, or transmit all the movies ever made in about four minutes according to the company. I am sure from such numbers, the ramifications for the future of IP communications are obvious.

To make the possibilities just a little clearer Cisco offered up this in their press release: Cisco CRS-3 can enable “every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously.” That’s a pretty amazing idea. Now, of course some of the data transfer will be used for all our other Internet capabilities and communications, but take a few of these routers combined with high speed networks and the future of IP communications is upon us. Well, at least by the third quarter of this year when the technology is expected to leave trials and start shipping for $90,000.

With Cisco recently purchasing Tandberg and making other moves to position itself as the unified communications technology provider of choice, it is easy to forget sometimes that for Cisco its all about networking. But then again, the speed of the network will make its unified communications (UC) offerings no brainers.