In the 1200s, Genghis Khan swept across the plains of Asia at lightning speed. Now, Mongols are sweeping across the Internet at lightning speed -- with the first EV-DO Rev A network, able to download data at up to 3.1 MBits/sec and upload at 1.8 Mbits/sec, according to a press release from infrastructure provider ZTE.

Over here, Sprint and Verizon are building Rev A networks which will launch in late 2006 or early 2007. But Mongolia's Skytel will be up and running this fall, ZTE says. Hordes of people in buzzing metropolises like Darkhan, Erdenet and of course Ulan Bator will be able to upload and download faster than Genghis' horde could conquer a petty Chinese principality.

Want to hear something depressing? The land of yurts and the Gobi Desert also has far cooler phones than we do -- check out Skytel's selection, including some wicked SK Telecom models. Then again, given the hipsters coming out of Mongolia today (see picture at left), maybe we should rethink the country's old image as a dusty backwater on the steppes.