FUTURISTIC GROOVES

In 1960, South Korea had only one telephone for every 300 people - barely one tenth of the world average at the time. Today, more than 90% of households have a fixed-line phone, three times the world average.

Moreover, three-quarters of the population carry mobile phones, which mean that pretty well everyone has one, apart from tiny tots and a few elderly people. With government encouragement and the benefit of a densely populated, mainly urban environment, South Korea has been relatively easy to wire up. The country boasts one of the highest internet-penetration rates in the world, with more than 31m of the 48m population now having access to the web, most of them via high-speed services. Apartment blocks display government notices by the front door certifying the speed of their internet connection.

Those connections are about to get even faster. In January, the government licensed the country’s three main telecoms firms, SK Telecom, KT and Hanaro, to offer a new high-speed wireless internet service called WiBro. From next year, this will allow mobile users to surf the internet at much higher speeds than they do now, as well as more reliably. Somewhat alarmingly, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) says it will work even in a car travelling at 60km an hour.

For the country’s consumer-electronics makers, this vibrant home market is an invaluable development laboratory. Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s biggest consumer-electronics company, has already produced a mobile phone especially for watching high-quality video. Its rival, LG Electronics, has even unveiled one with a built-in personal video recorder, which automatically switches to “record” if the user needs to take a call. Lots of other new gadgets are coming, including phones that can read the radio-frequency identification tags that will eventually replace the barcodes attached to goods. These phones, says the MIC, could be used to check the expiry date of fresh produce, say, or pick up a signal from a poster advertising a new movie, which would then prompt you to download a preview.

Furthermore, walk into the experimental coffee bar at the Ministry of MIC’s offices in Seoul, and the screen of a handset lights up with the menu. You can order two cappuccinos, pay electronically and receive a receipt, all on the handset. Mobile phones are already configured for some basic ecommerce activities such as downloading music, and in Asia a few can already be used to make some purchases in shops. “There is a future, not too far away, when the only thing you will need to leave home with is your mobile phone, because it will be your wallet and your key and all the things it already is,” says David Wheldon, global director of marketing and brand communications for Britain’s Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile operator.

There seems little doubt that South Koreans will flock to use many of these services: the MIC expects the number of WiBro subscribers to rise to over 9m within six years. But the way the locals use these new technologies may not translate perfectly to other countries. Watching video on your mobile phone already looks like a winner in Japan, because many Japanese face long commutes on public transport. But if you are stuck in a traffic jam on Interstate 405 on your way to work in Los Angeles, you might do better to tune your phone to pick up high-quality satellite radio instead.