To be honest I don't find this *that* amazing.

I worked at the victim-of-the-telecoms-bubble that was Marconi 2000-02 and there was a bit of kit, the snappily titled UPLx, that could deal with 160 10Gbps channels down a pair of fibres, unregenerated over about 1000km - using soliton wave shaping and some sodding great Ramen pump laser to get there (nothing to do with noodles before you ask). It was demoed in the labs reliably, and I believe sold in to Telstra Australia

In 5 years, they've added 4 Gbps ... wow.