China’s big three telecom companies are banking on consumers to be as eager for next-generation 5G wireless network technology as officials.

After signing an agreement earlier this month to jointly build and share a nationwide 5G network, China Unicom and China Telecom have now launched pre-orders for 5G data plans.

China Mobile, the third major Chinese carrier, previously said it would unveil next-generation network plans in October, local media reported.

According to China Telecom’s promotion page (link in Chinese), more than 690,000 people signed up to pre-order 5G plans. Incentives include tiered discounts for existing customers depending on the length of time they have been with the carrier.

Unicom offered similar discounts but also featured discounts on 5G-enabled smartphones.

According to both companies’ fine print, the carriers would notify customers to set up their 5G service “when it goes live,” though neither specified when that might happen.

China has been aggressive in its efforts to roll out 5G as it pushes the use of big data and artificial intelligence in telemedicine, autonomous cars and surveillance.

Before announcing network sharing as a major cost-cutting measure, major Chinese carriers had been compelled to earmark upwards of 24 billion yuan ($3.37 billion) this year alone for building 5G-related infrastructure.

Contact reporter Dave Yin (davidyin@caixin.com, @yindavid)