There is a long article in Forbes magazine (Korea's Weird Wired World) about how is to live in a broadband wired country like Kore. It's amusing to know that

"South Korea has gone gaga over broadband. This nation of 46 million people, packed into an area smaller than Virginia, has quickly become the world's most wired nation. Politics, entertainment, sex, mass media, crime and commerce are being reshaped by a population as online as it is offline. Some 11 million homes, or 70% of the total, have broadband accounts, and at peak times just about all of those homes are online. Nearly two-thirds of Korean mobile phone users have shifted to so-called third-generation handsets that offer speeds up to ten times that of mobiles in the U.S. Here [in USA], residential broadband isn't expected to enter 50% of homes until late 2004.

"Ubiquitous, fast and cheap access to the Internet has upended Korean society in dramatically unexpected ways. Depending on whom you ask, its experience should serve as either a warning or a triumph for the rest of a world racing to deliver broadband to the masses. Korean marriages are fraying as spouses cheat on each other through video chat. Psychiatrists are swamped with patients coming in for cures to online addiction. One man even died last year from a heart attack brought on by the stress of spending days waging war in an Internet game."

"Hanaro, the country's top seller of broadband access, and its nemesis, Korea Telecom, are racing to build the world's
most advanced wireless Internet infrastructure. Hanaro may soon approve a $1.2 billion cash infusion from a group of investors led by U.S. insurer AIG. If the deal goes through, it would be Korea's largest foreign investment to date. The idea is to have base stations everywhere beaming Net connections at 2.4 megabits per second--faster than top cable modem speeds--so that people can be connected no matter if they are in the street, in a car or at a restaurant. People could use the same e-mail and network identity everywhere, on landlines or over the air."

"Firms like Samsung and LG are inventing new types of handheld devices with voice-recognition and big screens to help
people defend their virtual castles no matter where they are. At least 80 foreign companies have set up research sites in Korea to tap into this gigantic broadband laboratory. Even though Microsoft gets only $200 million in yearly revenue from Korea, it has just invested $500 million in Korea Telecom, in part to test plans for ubiquitous computing"


"Some 10% of the general population and 40% of 13- to 18-year-olds are addicted to the Net, says Dr. Kim Hyun Soo, 37, head of Korea's professional society for psychologists specialized in treating Internet addiction. "I have seen kids who have not left the house for two years," he says.


Obviously in Chile we are economically and technologically a long way behind, with a few exceptions at the top 5% of our population. Also our idiosincracy could deter this phenomenom, but it should be monitored from time to time