Successful experiments by Chinese scientists have indicated the possibility of the country’s netizens getting online through signals sent by lightbulbs (LiFi) instead of WiFi, Xinhua news agency reported.

Chi Nan, an information technology professor with Shanghai’s Fudan University, said four computers under a one-watt LED lightbulb may connect to the Internet under the principle that light can be used as a carrier instead of traditional radio frequencies as in WiFi.

A lightbulb with embedded microchips can produce data rates as fast as 150 megabits per second which is speedier than the average broadband connection in China, said Chi who leads a LiFi research team including scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

With LiFi cost-effective as well as efficient, netizens should be excited to view 10 sample LiFi kits that will be on display at the China International Industry Fair due to kick off on Nov 5 in Shanghai.

Chi said the current wireless signal transmission equipment is expensive and low in efficiency.

“As for cellphones, millions of base stations have been established around the world to strengthen the signal but most of the energy is consumed on their cooling systems. The energy utilisation rate is only 5 percent,” she said.

Compared with base stations, the number of lightbulbs that can be used is practically limitless.

Chi said there is still a long way to go to make LiFi a commercial success.

She added that more importantly, the development of a series of key related pieces of technology, including light communication controls as well as microchip design and manufacturing, is still in an experimental period.

The term LiFi was coined by Harald Haas from UK’s University of Edinburgh and refers to a type of visible light communication technology that delivers a networked, mobile, high-speed communication solution in a similar manner as WiFi.  

- Bernama