U.S. cellphone operators shun racy downloads

IHT: "With new functions to send e-mail, take pictures and listen to music, the mobile phone has turned into a portable minicomputer. But U.S. phone network operators are resisting two kinds of new services that were highly popular on the old personal computer: pornography and violent video games.

Cingular Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier, said this month that it would stop offering customers the option of downloading images of pornography-film stars, a service that had been offered by AT&T Wireless, which Cingular, owned by SBC Communications and BellSouth, bought in October. The images - of clothed women, at $5.99 a download - first became available to Cingular consumers in mid-November.

Along with ring tones and screen savers, racy pictures and violent games are now part of that commercial equation. In Europe and Asia, users of mobile phones can readily download erotic images and even explicit videos to be watched on the tiny screens. In a study published this year, one major Nordic carrier reported that 40 percent of Internet searches were for sex-oriented content, according to Charles Golvin, a telecommunications industry analyst with Forrester Research."