Korea and cellphones

Korea seems to be an amazing place for cellphone geeks. It seems even more advanced in this domain than Japan and Europe, while the US is lagging far behind.
They are text-messaging like crazy (SMS and other), deploying 3G networks, implementing number portability and using the cellphone to make purchases.
Wired is also reporting a new feature: custom ring-back tunes, which are not only cute but are expected to bring significant revenues. Although features like this may seem useless or even annoying, it clearly reveals how much Koreans are investing socially in the "connected" lifestyle.

Even the wired broadband services are very developed there, with high broadband adoption, heavy infrastructure investments and online socialization: "The Bandwidth Capital of the World" (Wired).

Update: Slashdot has a story titled "Broadband Is The Secret To South Korea's Success", about the role of the Korean governement in pushing and supporting the massive infrastructure rollout.

Links:
Korea Emerges as a Leader in Global Mobile Phone Revolution (Korean Government Homepage).
SK Telecom sells cell phone melody that repells mosquitoes.