CANADA — Canadians looking forward to enjoying a few sensually relaxing moments alone with their cell phones will have to keep their minds on business, thanks to pressure from sexually conservative forces ranging from shareholders to customers to religious groups including the Catholic Church. Although Telus Corp. thought it had made the right connection when it married cell phone technology with erotic photos and videos at the end of January, by the end of February that marriage had been effectively annulled.
According to the Toronto Star, Canada’s second largest phone company put the brakes on its wireless porn delivery program after it received a hundred or so complaints throughout the month of February. In addition to making content from Playboy TV, Sex TV, and the Hustler channel available to subscribers, the service had made still images and short video clips available for download to thousands of subscribers.
Archbishop Raymond Roussin, whose archdiocese counts 400,000 parishioners, had issued a video statement condemning the handheld porn solution, calling on fellow Catholics, their churches, and all schools to boycott Telus until it denied subscribers to right to sign up for such opt-in premiums. He further encouraged all “concerned Canadians” regardless of religious belief to protest the ability of cell phone subscribers to access adult content via the technology.
Canadian software creator 2much Internet Services had been in negotiations with the wireless provider and issued a press release expressing “dismay and disappointment” at Telus’ decision. “This isn’t only a blow to the industry or to 2much,” company president and founder Mark Prince says in the release, “It’s a shameful precedent to have a handful of complains based on a doubtful morality dictate the choice — or lack of choice — of tens of thousands of users.”
Prince assures consumers that “Despite the minority morality which appears to influence our general business and cultural interests, 2much, and I’m sure the rest of the adult community, intends to pursue plans to develop cross-platform distribution of our content.”
The Star reports that Telus ditched the first-ever Canadian program of its kind on Tuesday in an attempt to minimize damage to its corporate image. The SeaBoard Group estimates that income from handheld devices could reach $900 million worldwide by 2008.
