Sins of the SIM card

[Yug]

This is exactly the kind of things I've been working towards ... very exciting ...

Taken from an article in the sydney morning herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/08/...l?oneclick=true


Technology is driving what would seem to be an inevitable market in mobile porn and gambling services, writes Beverley Head.

Everyone needs a "moan-tone", says the US porn star Jenna Jameson in a media release for her new mobile phone service. Jameson has recorded "a variety of moans and sensual noises" that mobile phone users can play as ring tones for incoming calls. The moan-tones cost $US1 ($1.26) each.

Jameson and her New York business partner, Wicked Wireless, launched the moan-tones in Latin America but plan to sell them, along with sexy pictures and even mini-digital porn mags, to mobile phone users around the world.

In Britain, the focus is on mobile gambling. A gambling bill before the House of Lords would allow for a gaming authority to license "remote gambling" via mobile phones and other technologies.

About 800,000 Britons gamble online each month, according to government estimates. Hutchison, which operates one of Australia's four main mobile phone services, began offering betting on casino games in Britain last November.

The mobile entertainment provider iTouch - which also operates in Australia - announced last month that it would offer "fixed-odds games, casino games (poker, blackjack and roulette), a variety of lottery services, instant tickets, sports-book and horse-racing services" to British mobile phone users.

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AdvertisementIn Australia, the government regulator is about to decide if mobile phone users will be allowed to indulge in R-rated content. The technology is already here. Hutchison's local "3" service has offered high-speed, internet-style mobile-phone services since 2003. Later this year, Vodafone, Telstra and Optus are due to launch similar "third-generation", or 3G, services, which allow video downloads and interactive gaming applications.

With the arrival of competition, prices for such premium mobile phone services should fall, leaving government regulation as the only hurdle for mobile gambling and pornography entrepreneurs.

The Australian Communications Authority is due to make a decision on what can and cannot be displayed on a mobile by mid-year.

Under Australian law, gaming companies can offer sports betting over phones and the internet, but not casino-style gambling. Carriers and internet service providers are supposed to block "objectionable" material such as pornography, but it's an almost impossible task.

The economic pressure to allow R-rated mobile content is high. By next year, the carriers will have collectively spent about $3 billion on 3G-related costs, such as licences, construction and marketing.

Although they have taken to text messaging, Australians have shown little interest in high-priced premium mobile services. Based on overseas experience, gambling and pornography may be the carriers' best chances of profiting from their 3G investments.

Hutchison's 3 offers a "premier" service, which provides access to Playboy video clips and erotic service listings. But it won't say how many of its 400,000 third-generation clients use the service. Subscribers pay 25¢ to access the "girl of the day" and up to $3 for a sexy video.

About 400,000 (or one in every 45) mobile phones in Australia are classed as 3G, but the telecommunications analyst Paul Budde estimates there could be as many as 1.5 million 3G mobiles in Australia by the end of the year.

If overseas experience is any indicator, a lot of users would like to access adult content, even if the Government isn't keen. The global market for adult mobile phone content will hit $US1 billion this year, estimates the US analyst Juniper Research. Mobile gambling services will be even bigger, estimated to generate $US19 billion - almost a third of the mobile entertainment market - by 2009.

Australians spend about $15 billion a year on gambling, according to the ANU Centre for Gambling Research. And the centre's Professor Jan McMillen says that technology is driving the market.

In Britain, demand for online poker doubled last year, and is a favourite among the young - the primary target market for 3G phones.

Sports betting will become a key mobile application, predicts Peter Bridge, managing director of Lasseters, the only online casino in Australia (it's allowed to offer services to overseas customers only). However, Lasseters has no plans to offer sports or casino mobile gaming.

Even if the Government bans mobile pornography and gambling, there will be easy access to overseas services via wireless internet connections, predicts Jamie Nettleton, a partner with Addisons Lawyers who specialises in online gaming. "The fact that it's illegal does not mean people are not doing it." It will be as easy to access overseas gambling or porn sites from a 3G phone as it is from a PC, he says.

Those who want to watch phone-porn will be able to access international sites through phone portals, as long as they are not specifically blocked by their phone company.

It appears unlikely that such services will be officially sanctioned.

The communications authority last month released draft guidelines regarding adult content for mobile phones and held a series of public forums, calling for feedback.

The authority, which controls phone number allocation, has reserved the 195 and 196 prefixes for adult messaging services, but has prohibited such services until final guidelines are released. The authority is expected to outlaw such services in any case.

While SMS adult content has been tackled, the market is waiting for rules governing access to portal content - that is, the content that can be accessed by clicking on icons on a phone's screen.

Vince Humphries, the authority's manager of mobile content, says the final rules should be available mid-year and will tackle things such as the content that will be permitted, the way in which mobile chat rooms can be moderated, and how people accessing these services will be informed about costs.

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have said they will hold off making any decisions about content until the authority's guidelines are released. Hutchison, meanwhile, continues to offer portal access to adult services but requires age verification and a personal identification number.

"Ultimately, the consumer demand and the regulators will determine what is available," a Telstra spokesman said. "At the moment, we are focusing on developing the network and our plans for content are not developed at this stage." Telstra's slower mobile technology, i-mode, does not offer any adult content.

It's hard to find any content provider willing to put their hand up as a would-be porn provider. iTouch does not offer adult content in Australia. The closest it comes is a "glamour" product serving up images of girls in bikinis, says its Australian chief executive, Chris Grant-Foster.

Grant-Foster also characterises Hutchison's Premier service as "glamour", rather than "adult". He is well-placed to distinguish the two, having seen the services iTouch sells in the more liberal Scandinavian countries. There, the company provides premium SMS services, allowing phone users to pay for a 10-minute erotic video download.

"I think that the single biggest issue is access and age control," says Grant-Foster, who expects a "conservative approach" from the regulator.

"These phones have the advanced technical capability, and if I'm next to you on a bus and you screen through an adult section, then there could be a problem. I have an 11-year-old son and I wouldn't want him getting his hands on it."

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties agrees there is a need to regulate mobile phone adult content, but it doesn't want an outright ban.

"Many of the issues are moral questions and whatever consenting adults want to do they should be able to, as long as they are properly informed," says the council's president, Cameron Murphy.

The mobile industry's peak body, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, says its members will stick by the communications authority's rules. However, a spokesman from the association, Randal Markey, says the problem of minors seeing adult content on a mobile phone is, in principle, "no different to children getting material that's unsuitable from a newsagent".

The chances of corrupting children by giving them an inadvertent glimpse of images on a phone screen are pretty slim, as "you have to be very close to the screen to see this stuff", Markey says.

The services may initially be priced high, says Budde. "The operators will have to charge 50, 60 or 70¢ for a picture. There is a huge mismatch between the teenagers who love pictures but can't afford it and the companies that can afford it but have bars on video on the phones.

"Sex and gambling - yes, they will be there, and have been with every technology since the 1840s. The early money in these services is in pornography and gambling. There will be those services, and when you can get video over the internet, you can bet that it will be sex that sells first.

"But if you look at porn, there are rules in place. If you're a pedophile and you have a picture on the phone, on the internet, or paint it on bark, you will be prosecuted. There are rules about this, and how it is delivered is irrelevant."

What is 3G?
Third-generation or "3G" mobile phone technology allows sophisticated features such as video phone calls, games and movies. The first generation was the analog system. Most Australians now use second-generation digital phones. Upgrading from 2G to 3G is a bit like going from a slow, dial-up internet connection to a fast broadband service.

Hutchison's 3 became the first 3G service in Australia in 2003. Telstra will share Hutchison's network when it launches a 3G service in the middle of this year. Optus and Vodafone plan to share a second 3G network when they launch services later this year.

There are about 400,000 3G phones in Australia. The number is expected to reach 1.5 million by the end of the year, says a telecommunications analyst, Paul Budde. Early users will continue to drive demand, leading to about one in five phones being 3G by the end of next year. In 2007, when a national 3G infrastructure is complete, the mass market demand will kick in. From then, all new mobile phones will be 3G-enabled.

[SykkBoy]

some of us are working covertly (and not-so-covertly) on some new stuff...

sadly, mine isn't porn related though....as big as porn will be for mobiles, I'm banking on more mainstream delivered content...less legal hassles, IMHO

[ColPanic]

Hey Yug and everyone else.

I really need to fill out my profile a bit better, but my name is Todd, and I work for WireRunner.com . This is exactly the service we help your paysites offer.

Our software integrates with your existing sytem (NATS or whatever) to let you sell mobile version of your content as an upsell to your existing site. This is largely useful for the US, where you can't do adult via premium SMS.

Using our system you can also deliver via Premium SMS across several European countries, out of the box.

We are hopefully launching with our first client this week, and can get you up and running quickly as well. Hit me up!

We can turn your images, short video clips (avi or mov), and audio clips (mp3, wav, midi etc) into mobile versions based on whatever device your subscriber shows up with. All you have to do is drag and drop.

Either email me at: op at wirerunner dot com, or on ICQ: 282113356

The next couple sites that have decent subscriber base and contact me will get the software for FREE, since we are still in a beta mode.

This stuff is going to get interesting.

T

[Bjorn]

This is gonna be big thats for sure, really looking forward to see 3g growing in usage