NASA also using lasers in interplanetary communications
The 5-watt laser NASA plans to test at Mars by the end of the decade is expected to transmit data at rates nearly 10 times faster than any existing interplanetary radio communications link. The difference, NASA officials said, will be comparable to moving from a dial-up modem to a broadband Internet connection.
The rest of the article is here:
http://space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_041115.html
For another comparison, when Mariner 4 sent back the first images of Mars in 1965, the transmission rate for the 22 grainy black-and-white images was 8 bits per second!