South Korea’s three major mobile operators have agreed to jointly launch the world’s first fifth-generation wireless network services. 

At a meeting with the heads of SK Telecom, KT, and LG UPlus in Seoul on Tuesday, Minister of Science and ICT You Young-min announced their plan to begin commercial 5G services in March 2019. 

The minister said in order for South Korea to lead the global 5G market, it's better for the nation's mobile operators to work together rather than compete against each other.

He called on the operators to consider discounting 5G services fees for the lowest 20 percent income earners as they currently do for their fourth-generation services, while urging them to cooperate with small businesses and share the benefits across the whole industry. 

The three companies plan to choose their subcontractors by next month to begin building related infrastructure from September.