China’s tech giant achieves a theoretical connection speed of 280 Gbps in pilot tests, surpassing 5G by a factor of 28 and leaving the U.S. and Europe behind in the race for the next generation of mobile networks.
China continues to lead the future of telecommunications. During the China Internet Conference 2025, China Mobile announced a historic milestone: the successful implementation of a pilot 6G network capable of downloading a 50 GB file in just 1.4 seconds. This feat, with a theoretical speed of around 280 gigabits per second (Gbps), confirms that China is at the forefront of mobile connectivity development, well ahead of the rest of the world.
This progress occurs while many regions are still struggling to fully and effectively deploy 5G. In contrast, China Mobile is already testing the real capabilities of the next-generation mobile networks, driven by a massive investment in research and development that this year totals 391 billion yuan (about $5.46 billion).
The speed of tomorrow, today
According to Cheng Jianjun, China Mobile’s Deputy General Manager, the operator has led four of the country’s major 6G research projects and has defined ten key technologies that will shape this new standard. The pilot deployment already includes 10 active base stations, achieving enough speed to transmit a two-hour 4K movie… every second.
Although these are laboratory conditions, the results are astonishing. The 280 Gbps figure makes 6G 28 times faster than the current top-performing 5G, which maxes out around 10 Gbps. Still, China Mobile engineers suggest that, accounting for latency and network protocol losses, real-world speeds could reach up to 360 Gbps.
The challenge: beyond speed
The transition to 6G isn’t just about faster downloads. This connectivity promises to enable scenarios that were once science fiction: real-time artificial intelligence, interconnected smart cities, extended reality without latency, and autonomous vehicles instantly responding to their environment.
However, this revolution comes with its own challenges. 6G relies on millimeter-wave frequencies and terahertz bands, which offer extremely high capacity but have very limited range and require line-of-sight. In other words, their large-scale deployment will depend on an extremely dense network of antennas, which could be a significant obstacle for countries with less infrastructure or lower investments in telecommunications.
An uneven race: China versus the world
While China Mobile announces its pilot 6G network, Europe and the United States are still finalizing details to fully harness 5G. In China, commercial 5G was launched in October 2019 in 50 cities. By comparison, the EU didn’t achieve full coverage in all 27 member states until January 2022, and in Spain, real 5G—without support from 4G networks—didn’t arrive until February 2023 in a few cities.
Analysts suggest that if this delay persists, China could have 6G fully operational several years before the West. Projections indicate the country plans for commercial deployment by 2030, but past experience with 5G suggests it might happen earlier.
Technology, sovereignty, and geopolitical leadership
Beyond technical aspects, 6G is becoming a strategic power vector. Speed matters not only for streaming ultra-high-definition videos but also for data control, military deployment, industrial automation, and digital sovereignty.
With its 2.4 million 5G base stations—more than 30% of all existing worldwide—China Mobile seems poised to also lead in the next chapter. While other countries watch cautiously for 6G, China is already testing it.
The question isn’t if the sixth generation of mobile networks will arrive but when and who will set its rules. Currently, all signs point to the East.
via: Mydrivers