South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to conduct joint research on the standardization of formats of fourth-generation mobile phones capable of high-speed, large-capacity data transmission.

According to Japanese media Monday, the agreement was reached Sunday during a meeting of senior telecom officials of the three countries in the southeastern province of Fujian in China.

The officials also agreed to work together to ensure the security of information networks in a bid to crack down on computer viruses.

If the three countries succeed in unifying their standards for mobile phones, people will be able to use the same cellular phone in the three countries.

The 4G phone technology, featuring much higher throughput and more sophisticated capabilities than currently available, is expected to be commercialized around 2010.