The ICT Ministry of South Korea on Wednesday announced that the government and the nation’s major telecommunications firms would invest around 25 trillion won ($22 billion) by 2020 to expand the nation’s 5G infrastructure.

The agreement came after the meeting between ICT Minister and the leaders of the nation’s three major telecommunications firms, SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho, KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo and LG U+ Vice Chairman Ha Hyun-hwoi.

During the meeting, ICT Minister Choi stressed that 5G networks wer a fundamental part of infrastructure that would process large amounts of data for a variety of businesses.

ICT Minister added that the nationstill needs to speed up investment to increase the network quality for local users.

To accelerate building the network infrastructure, South Korea’s three major telecommunications companies, along with SK Telecom subsidiary SK Broadband, would invest 25 trillion won.

In response, the government promised to provide tax benefits.

In 2019, the nation’s three major telecommunications firms and SK Broadband invested a total of 9.6 trillion won, up around 50 percent compared to 2018.

Meanwhile, the number of 5G users here increased at 7.4 million by the end of June.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)