CYBERSPACE – It is coming. Experts disagree on how fast, but it is definitely coming.“It,” in this case, is the technology known as WiMAX – short for “World Interoperability for Microwave Access” – a standard for delivering broadband services via microwaves that has the potential to revolutionize internet access in rural areas. Along with that potential, naturally, comes the means for high-speed porn downloading in areas where Web surfers are currently slave to dialup service, and still experiencing a rather slow and ungainly internet, much as the rest of us did years ago.
WiMAX, which some have taken to calling “Wi-Fi on steroids,” is being touted as the solution for areas that are too remote, and thereby too costly, for telephone and/or cable outfits to wire for cable modem or DSL.
“WiMAX is an interesting kind of compromise between cellular and Wi-Fi coverage,” Scott Shamp, director of the University of Georgia’s New Media Institute said in an interview with CNN. “It gives you high data speeds like Wi-Fi but covers a much bigger geographic area like cellular coverage.”
The expectation is that WiMAX will have a huge impact in developing nations across the globe, representing a lower cost alternative to rolling out cable, telephone and fiber infrastructure into such areas.
“Certainly in markets like Indonesia, India, Africa and some parts of Latin America, where wired infrastructure is poor, WiMAX provides a huge opportunity,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. “There already is demand.”
The implications for the online adult industry are clear; a large new market of broadband customers, many of whom live in areas without a local adult bookstore or video arcade. As is always the case for the adult industry, that emerging market comes carrying both pros and cons in tow.
One obvious plus is the as-yet essentially untapped market in such rural areas, both within the US and across our borders. Most remote rural areas are hundreds of miles removed from the nearest adult-oriented business (and in the case of foreign nations, such businesses are likely to not exist at all), and thus the Net and/or mobile sources may represent their only means to obtain sexually explicit content.
The size of the rural market for adult materials is hard to gauge at this early stage, but it is sure to be significant. Doubtless, even in some of the more isolated and insular communities, news of the ready availability of pornography on the Net has spread, and there are likely large groups of potential customers chomping at the bit for their first taste of Web-based porn.
“It should increase access to adult content, but not by a significant amount,” said Harvey Kaplan, Director of Mobile Operations for Xobile. “Currently, customers have high-speed Internet capabilities in rural areas through cable services (if they are too distant from the CO to obtain DSL). WiMAX could allow higher data transfer speed for mobile phones where people can use internet-enabled cell phones. But if there is no WiMAX tower near you, it will make no difference.”
Be that as it may, there are enormous rural areas, even within the US, where broadband is currently nothing more than wishful thinking. Ask anyone outside of a major population center in southern Arizona – less than a half hour drive from where I type this (in Tucson, AZ), you’ll find no cable or DSL available, and the satellite companies that used to serve Tucson’s outlying areas have stopped taking any home clients. Even for corporate clients, availability for businesses is subject to exorbitant setup fees.
Of course, simple existence of a new marketplace is only part of the equation; Kaplan noted that adult content distributors must also act now to take advantage of the developing mobile/wireless markets.
“To take the fullest advantage of WiMAX and other high speed mobile phone delivery capability, producers should start shooting content specifically for handheld devices, and then market it out to the general mobile and WiMAX markets,” Kaplan said. “Producers can adapt existing sites and develop any new sites for a mobile-compliant platform (such as XHTML) to serve the current mobile phone users and attract new ones. The ideal situation will be to serve people on their cell phones and PCs so they never have a reason to log off.”
On the possible negative side of the ledger, many of the most virulently anti-porn community groups are based in, and/or draw a large percentage of their members from, the very sort of rural areas that WiMAX will serve. That could lead to even greater pressure on the government from the religious right to crack down on the distribution of pornography, as they are bound to see greater market penetration into rural areas as further evidence of the “threat” presented by pornography.
“If the premise is true that people in rural areas are more apt to agree with the ‘family groups’ and other conservative organizations, then yes – it’s inevitable that WiMAX will bring even more complaints and pressure from such groups,” said Tom Hymes, Communications Director for the Free Speech Coalition (FSC). “But it’s also inevitable and unavoidable that broadband will eventually reach into more rural areas. The genie is out of the bottle, no question about it.”
Hymes said, in his opinion, no anti-porn argument or concern could ever halt the development of such technology, or trump the many inarguable positives of extending broadband capabilities into more remote areas.
“It’s like saying ‘let’s not build a new highway, because there’s a chance that a bank robber could use it to get away,’” Hymes said. “I should think that security and privacy issues would be the greater concern, really.”
Kaplan concurs, noting that although the industry will “probably see no more pressure than we are already facing from the people who want to impose their moral standards on the rest of us,” that alone will not halt the march of a technology that is in demand.
“It is important to keep in mind that the telecoms and cable companies are merely providing high-speed access to information, and what people chose to surf is entirely up to them,” Kaplan said. “Despite what the preachers say, we believe adults have the right to view whatever they want, and if they do so through an Internet connection or high-speed phone, all this does is speed it up and possibly increase consumption. This is good for our industry and increases the enjoyment of the consumer.”
Experts disagree as to how quickly WiMAX will become a viable option for delivering widespread broadband access. While optimists say it will months and not years before the initial WiMAX services hit the market, others say that the technology will not spread into areas that already have other broadband services until at least 2010.
“In developed economies, where cable and DSL infrastructure is reliable, where there are lots of subscribers and it is widely deployed, WiMAX does not have a great advantage,” Golvin said.
Some involved in the development of WiMAX see applications that could take shape much sooner, however, like setting up a giant hot spot, capable of serving an entire city. According to Eliot Weinman, conference chair of WiMAX World Conference & Expo, there are already close to 400 companies backing the development of WiMAX technology, with planned applications ranging from improved communication for police, fire and other “fist responder” vehicles, to enhanced entertainment and information services for mobile devices.
Whatever the speed with which it comes to market, WiMAX is bound to be exploited quickly – and expertly – by the adult entertainment industry. All you have to do is look at history; be it recent history – think the video iPod – or a couple decades back. The question of VHS v. Beta comes to mind in particular, as porn videos played an arguably decisive role in the triumph of the VHS format.
