I know Korea only runs on CDMA 800 (850) cellular services, which pretty much locks out cellular phones from most other countries. But are there restrictions on the CDMA phone itself? As long as it's CDMA 800, will it work if someone can program it?

I can't stand the few choices of cell phones that are on the market here. They ALL seem to use a Korean proprietary OS. I'm a tech junky, so I gotta have my techy toys and phones, with mobile OS's you can customize, i.e. Symbian OS, Java, Windows Mobile, iPhone apps, etc. They all let you install software at your whim (dictionaries, games, schedulers, messaging tools, etc), sync it to my comp, use bluetooth PC remote controls, etc, and use NATIVE english (not Korean OS horribly translated).

Since it seems Nokia's, iPhones, Smart Phones, etc aren't sold here, am I pretty much SOL? Or would it be possible to purchase an unlocked CDMA phones like the Moto Q, HTC Konquer, Nokia 6265i, or the Nokia 6275 online and then program them to work here?

I've also heard rumors that S.Korea my drop the barrier on foreign 3G phones in April - would this allow the above situation perhaps?

› See More: possible to use unlocked CMDA phones in Korean? (local networks, not roaming)