Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to jointly develop communications and other technologies for fourth-generation (4G) mobile phones, Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on Sunday.
Quoting "sources close to the matter", Nikkei said the accord was aimed at having the three Asian countries adopt a unified communications protocol for mobile phones that could come into commercial use around 2010.
The protocol could become the global standard as the three Asian countries account for about 30 percent of the world's total mobile phone users, Nikkei said.
Fourth-generation mobile phones are expected to allow for throughput of 100 megabits per second, equivalent to the speed of fiber-optic communications, the paper said. They would also enable users to watch crystal-clear TV images on their displays even on fast-moving trains, it added.
Japan's Telecommunications Minister Taro Aso will meet his Chinese and South Korean counterparts in Japan in July to sign an accord on the joint project, the sources were quoted as saying.
Japanese government officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.