Waiting for cell phone porn

The porn industry is just dying to get its hands on the U.S. mobile phone market - and for a time it seemed to have had a taker: L.A.-based Amp'd Mobile, the once flush and now quite bankrupt cellphone marketer and reseller. The NYT reported that the company had discussed the possibility of offering racy fare during a meeting with analysts in March (the company had let subscribers download pictures of fully clothed pornography stars and models). Of course, all the X-rated talk is now over with the Chapter 11 filing. So who else might take the plunge? At the Digital Hollywood conference this week in Santa Monica, sex film producers kept stressing the revenue opportunities in the U.S. But telecoms are just too scared of the backlash from conservatives, according to Clint Fayling, of BrickHouse Mobile, which bundles porn content for mobile phones in Europe. Here's the Red Herring story.

Risking any voice business drop off from negative PR just isn’t worth it yet, said Mr. Fayling, who offers soft-core porn content for U.S. No carriers were represented on the panel. Those concerns were confirmed earlier this year, when Canadian carrier Telus quietly began delivering explicit porn clips through an age-restricted system. The carrier was quickly bombarded by the Catholic church, which led protest that included shareholders dumping stocks and customer lawsuits. Less than a month later, Telus phones were porn-free again.