Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp -- that is the

promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with

revolutionary wireless technology.

French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the technology at the Mobile World

Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona. As soon as a

smartphone was placed under an office lamp, it started playing a video.

The big advantage of Li-Fi, short for "light fidelity", is its lightning

speed.

Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of over 200 Gbps -- fast

enough to "download the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one second", the founder

and head of Oledcomm, Suat Topsu, told AFP.

"Li-Fi allows speeds that are 100 times faster than Wi-Fi" which uses radio

waves to transmit data, he added.

The technology uses the frequencies generated by LED bulbs -- which flicker

on and off imperceptibly thousands of times a second -- to beam information

through the air, leading it to be dubbed the "digital equivalent of Morse

Code".

It started making its way out of laboratories in 2015 to be tested in

everyday settings in France, a Li-Fi pioneer, such as a museums and shopping

malls. It has also seen test runs in Belgium, Estonia and India.

Dutch medical equipment and lighting group Philips is reportedly interested

in the technology and Apple may integrate it in its next smartphone, the

iPhone7, due out at the end of the year, according to tech media.

With analysts predicting the number of objects that are connected to the

Internet soaring to 50 million by 2020 and the spectrum for radio waves used

by Wi-Fi in short supply, Li-Fi offers a viable alternative, according to

its promoters.