Which of the following technologies has the HIGHEST potential throughput?

DSL uses copper telephone lines and is limited by distance and line quality, with maximum speeds typically topping out near 100 Mbps for VDSL2 - far below fiber capability.

Fiber optic networks transmit data as pulses of light through glass or plastic fibers, enabling speeds from hundreds of Mbps to multiple Tbps depending on the implementation. This far exceeds DSL (typically up to 100 Mbps for VDSL2), cable (typically up to 1-2 Gbps), and satellite (typically 25-100 Mbps with high latency), making fiber the highest-throughput broadband option available.

Satellite broadband is constrained by atmospheric latency and available bandwidth per beam, typically offering 25-100 Mbps with high latency, making it the lowest-throughput option listed.

Cable broadband uses coaxial cable and DOCSIS technology, capable of 1-2 Gbps in modern deployments, but still falls well short of fiber's throughput potential.