First of all, This website is called “hacker” news: practicality doesn’t have a lot to do with it. [1]

Second, practical research into how to transmit information more efficiently has many, many applications. WiFi and mobile-phone technologies would not exist without research like this. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic

[2] https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/vbush1945.htm