The gravitational wave background of the universe has been heard for the 1st time

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Scientists report that the observed background hum of gravitational waves has grown in significance over time, providing tantalizing proof that there may be hundreds of thousands or even millions of supermassive black holes about to merge in the next few hundred thousand years, even though the gargantuan objects themselves haven't yet been spotted. <
Beyond confirming that there are background gravitational waves, what are the implications for this confirmation? Also, any other effects that could result from the portion I pulled from the article, beyond more ripple effects?
- With this new discovery (/confirmation of existing theories) it will be possible to identify leftover ripples from events from just a couple of seconds after the big bang, which will give us more information about what was going on back then.
  
  The big bang theory might be completely wrong. This discovery is not confirming it either.
Maybe I missed it, but does anybody know how fast they propagate? Light speed, or slower?
- The speed of light

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