Which countries are having 9G internet speed in 2025?

When one hears “9G internet speed,” it often sounds like science fiction. Today, most of the world is familiar with 4G and 5G, and early work is underway for 6G. But “9G” is not a real, standardized technology in 2025. Rather, the phrase tends to be used as speculative shorthand for ultra-gigabit, near-terabit, or far-future connectivity. In this article, we will examine what “9G speed” could imply, how realistic that is by 2025, and which countries are closest to achieving the kinds of ultra-high bandwidths that might someday lead to “9G.”

If you hoped to find a list of nations already running 9G in 2025, the honest answer is: none. But we can explore which countries are pushing the boundaries of internet speed today, and how their pipelines of investment, fiber coverage, and next-generation research might lay the groundwork for “9G” in the future.

What Could “9G” Even Mean?

To assess which countries might reach “9G” first, we must first define what we mean by “9G.” Here are a few plausible interpretations:

• Ultra-gigabit to terabit class speeds: In common usage, “9G” might imply speeds of 100 Gbps, 1 Tbps, or more for end users or backbone networks.

• Next-generation radio technology: Just as 5G refers to the fifth generation of mobile communications, “9G” could hypothetically refer to a far-future radio standard beyond 6G/7G.

• All-optical backbone networks: “9G” might more realistically represent fiber and optical networks (not mobile) delivering enormous throughput.

Given the constraints of physics, cost, and infrastructure, it is extremely unlikely that any consumer network in 2025 will be truly “9G.” Even in labs and research settings, achieving such speeds end to end is extraordinarily difficult. The gap between lab-level breakthroughs and real-world deployment is vast.

Thus, instead of finding any country that “has 9G in 2025,” we should look at the leading edge: which countries are offering the fastest internet speeds today, and which have the infrastructure and ambition to scale further.

Internet Speed Leaders in 2025

While no one has “9G,” we can look at average fixed broadband and mobile speeds by country in 2025 to see who is pushing limits. These are commonly measured in megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps) for high-end backbone links.

Fixed Broadband Leaders

As of 2025, the top countries by fixed (wired) broadband speeds include:

• Singapore: Often reported as having among the fastest fixed broadband globally, with average speeds in the 300–370 Mbps range.

• United Arab Emirates (UAE): Though more known for mobile performance, the UAE also scores high in fixed broadband, often placing among the top three.

• France, Hong Kong, Iceland, Chile, United States: These are among the nations that, by 2025, boast average broadband speeds approaching or exceeding ~200–300 Mbps in many locations.

Though these speeds are impressive, they are many orders of magnitude below what one might imagine “9G” to be. But they reveal which nations are the most advanced in pushing fiber, infrastructure, and investment.

Mobile and Wireless Speed Leaders

In the world of mobile connectivity, certain countries stand out:

• UAE currently leads in mobile download speeds, with figures reported around 539.84 Mbps (as of 2025).

• Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain: In the Middle East, these nations often appear among the top in mobile metrics, thanks to aggressive rollout of 5G+ and experimental technologies.

• South Korea, China, some European countries: They maintain strong mobile performance thanks to densification, small cells, and early 5G or 5G-Advanced deployment.

However, even ~500 Mbps is far below a hypothetical “9G” or terabit regime.

Why Nobody Has “9G” in 2025

There are many technical, economic, and regulatory reasons why “9G internet” does not exist in 2025:

1. Physical limitations
   Even with fiber optics, achieving extremely high throughput to individual end users is subject to signal attenuation, dispersion, amplifier noise, switching bottlenecks, and more. Pushing terabit speeds over wide distances is still largely a laboratory or backbone endeavor.

2. Cost and ROI
   Upgrading millions of homes and businesses to support ultra-high capacities is immensely expensive. Providers need return on investment, so they typically prioritize scalable upgrades (e.g. from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps) rather than leaps to 100 Gbps per user.

3. Demand and use cases
   Most consumer applications today (streaming, gaming, conferencing) do not require terabit speeds. Unless there is compelling demand (for example, AR/VR, holographic telepresence, pervasive AI, or massive data offload), it is difficult to justify pushing “9G” now.

4. Standards and ecosystem
   For wireless “9G,” there would need to be standardized protocols, spectrum allocation, chipsets, devices, and global coordination. Developers are only now planning for 6G/7G in research (beyond 2030).

5. Last-mile and middle-mile bottlenecks
   Even if a country has a fiber backbone capable of enormous throughput, the “last mile” (to homes) and “middle mile” (regional aggregation) often become chokepoints that limit speed.

Given all that, by 2025, no country can credibly claim to offer “9G” consumer service.

Which Countries Are the Best Candidates for “9G” First?

Although “9G” is not here yet, certain countries are better positioned to transition toward ultra-high speeds in the future. Here are some prospects, based on infrastructure, investment, policy, and innovation.

Singapore

Why it’s a candidate:
Singapore has one of the world’s most advanced fiber infrastructures, high population density (making fiber rollout economical), and a government committed to digital transformation. Its average speeds already push the top of global fixed-broadband charts.

What it would need to do for “9G”:

• Upgrade optical backbone to multi-terabit capacity

• Deploy advanced fiber architectures (e.g. DWDM, photonic switching) for local distribution

• Stimulate domestic demand for extremely high bandwidth use cases

• Support research in next-generation optical and wireless technologies

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Why it’s a candidate:
The UAE leads in mobile speeds and is investing heavily in smart infrastructure, 5G densification, and ambitious digital city projects (e.g. in Dubai). Its governmental agility and funding capacity allow rapid deployment of cutting-edge tech.

Challenges to overcome:

• Ensuring uniform coverage beyond major cities

• Balancing cost in less dense regions

• Integrating fiber, wireless, satellite, and edge computing into a seamless ultra-fast network

South Korea & Japan

Why they’re contenders:
South Korea and Japan have long been leaders in broadband and mobile innovation. Their dense urban clusters and technology industries make them natural candidates for early adoption of next-generation networks. These nations often host advanced trials in 6G/terabit communication.

What they could improve:

• Bridging urban-rural divides

• Scaling ultra-high performance from labs to mass deployment

• Securing spectrum and coordinating standardization

European Nations and High-Income OECD Countries

Countries in Europe—especially smaller ones with dense population, strong regulation, and good capital markets—could also move faster. Nations like Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands have shown capacity for ambitious broadband rollout. Similarly, small city-states or well-infrastructured countries may have an advantage.

What to Watch: Enabling Technologies for “9G”

Even though “9G” is futuristic, several technologies under development today could pave the way:

1. Advanced optical networks

   • DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

   • Photonic integrated circuits and switches

   • Spatial-division multiplexing

   • Hollow-core fiber or new fiber materials

   • Optical amplifiers with lower noise

2. Terabit-capable routers and switches
   Networking gear needs to evolve to handle terabits at edge, aggregation, and core levels without introducing latency or packet loss.

3. Wireless shortcuts / hybrid access
   Combining fiber with ultra-fast wireless (millimeter wave, terahertz, free-space optics) to bridge gaps or for last-hundred-meter access.

4. Edge computing and distributed architectures
   Offloading processing closer to users reduces demand for ultra-long links and helps manage bandwidth more efficiently.

5. AI-driven network optimization
   Smart routing, traffic prediction, and dynamic resource allocation will be vital to maximize performance on hyper-capable networks.

6. Regulatory support and spectrum allocation
   Governments must plan for high-band spectrum (e.g., sub-THz or terahertz bands), corridor rights-of-way for fiber, incentives for infrastructure investment.

Reality Check: What Users Can Expect in 2025

As an individual or business in 2025, here’s what the realistic expectations are, and where things might head:

• Consumer plans: Many users will continue to see speeds in the 100s to low 1,000s of Mbps (e.g. 1–10 Gbps) depending on region.

• Business and data center links: Some cities and enterprise campuses already use multi-gigabit, sometimes terabit, links internally.

• Research testbeds: Some nations may deploy pilot “beyond-5G” or “6G prerelease / physical layer” testbeds with extremely high throughput in select corridors or campuses.

• Regional disparity: Cutting-edge connectivity will likely concentrate in rich urban zones and innovation hubs; rural areas will lag.

• Gradual transition: Over the 2025–2030 horizon, we may see incremental steps toward what might eventually be termed “9G”—for example, 100 Gbps to homes, or 400 Gbps wireless links.

• No country in 2025 operates “9G” internet — the concept remains speculative and futuristic.

• Leading candidates for pushing toward such a threshold include Singapore, the UAE, South Korea, Japan, and well-resourced European nations, owing to their strong fiber infrastructure, innovation ecosystems, and government support.

• The gap is currently huge — the world’s top average speeds in 2025 (hundreds of Mbps to low gigabits) are still many orders below what one would imagine as “9G” (terabit class).

• The transition will be gradual and incremental, driven by advances in fiber optics, hybrid wireless, edge computing, AI networking, and regulatory frameworks.