Phone Sex Of The Future - Finding The 3g Spot
The Sunday Age
Sunday March 24, 2002
No sex, please. We're Australians. Publicly, at least, that is likely to be the word when broadband Internet access comes to Australian mobile phones about the end of this year or early in 2003.
But in Europe, including Britain, mobile phone companies are openly planning to get into the sex business, offering pornography to their broadband customers. The reason is simple - money - and loads of it if the billions spent on porn on conventional Internet sites is any guide.
Most of Europe's 3G (third generation mobile) networks, as this broadband technology is called, will not be operating for at least a year, but they are already well on the way to providing "adult" content they think will be worth $3 billion a year by 2005. Virgin Mobile, a division of Sir Richard Branson's empire, has set up Virgin Xtras, a company to provide what it calls adult services of all kinds through its 3G network.
Australian pornographers and mobile phone companies won't share in any similar bonanza, if indeed millions of males (and probably also females) are willing to spend their hard-earned on watching dubious scenes on the tiny screen of a mobile phone handset at about $3 a minute.
Current Australian laws covering things Internet prohibit the propagation of pornography.
But, just as with desktop Internet access, there would appear to be little or no reason why any really dedicated follower of pornographic websites should not see his dirty pictures. All he need do is dial an overseas website, just as he does now. The only difference would be the cost. Whereas desktop access to the Internet involves, at most, a local telephone call charge and $5 to $10 paid to the porn site, using a broadband mobile phone would undoubtedly run up a very much higher bill. How much higher isn't yet established.
Mobile broadband, or 3G, access to the Internet and other online services will be launched in Australia about the end of this year or early next year by the local arm of Hutchison Whampoa, one of the two networks actively preparing to offer pornography in Europe. They trade here as Orange.
Hutchison Australia is busy preparing content for its forthcoming network.
"We plan to start with the fun things - multimedia messaging, video clips, music, webcam photos; things like that," said Marie Kelly, of Hutchison.
Some 3G phones will have little cameras built in to send video clips over the network. Others will double as MP3 music players.
Research into the use, especially by young people, of SMS (short message system) suggests cost will be a smaller consideration for this group than being able to communicate with pictures, voice and music.
There will also be news, weather and sport. Hutchison Australia has already done a sponsorship deal with the Australian Cricket Board. But, as decreed by Australian law, there won't be any porn. Financially speaking, it's likely to be a sacrifice. In London, Nick White, who runs Virgin Xtras, says he wants erotic images and games, sex messages from virtual mistresses (undoubtedly for the really desperate) and any other adult service they can think of that will haul in the money. To that end, Virgin Xtras has already formed an alliance with playboy.com, the Internet arm of the ageing Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire.
People love mobile phones, says Mr White. People also love the Internet. The combination will be powerful.
Academic research long ago revealed that on Internet search engines the most common requests are for sex porn and all the many other words likely to turn up something pornographic.
Combine that with a mobile phone always connected to the Internet, always to hand, and it's easy to hear cash registers ringing.
Australia's 3G operators are probably grateful they're only in to the tune of $1.68 billion. They'll probably make that back on wagering alone.
? US surveys suggest that most activity on porn sites occurs between 9am and 5pm.
? UNICEF estimates that one million children, mainly from impoverished Asian countries, are forced into prostitution or used to produce pornography each year.
? In the US in 2000 revenue of cable TV companies from pay-per-view programming, mainly movies and sport, was $US954 million of which sexually explicit programming accounted for $177 million.
? The US pornography industry takes in more than $9 billion a year, more than all the money spent on rock and country music.
(US News and World Report)
© 2002 The Sunday Age
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