VANCOUVER – Last week Telus began offering dedicated adult content to its wireless subscribers.
For about $3 to $4 per download, customers can access images and videos from the Telus network, using age-verification techniques. It’s believed Telus us the first wireless carrier in North America to offer such a dedicated, age-verification protected service to its customers.
Of course, customers of any carrier with a web-enabled phone can access adult web sites whenever they want, but Telus is offering a high quality experience limited to adults only. The quality of experience when surfing to adult sites with a smartphone, for example, can be dodgy sometimes.
"The content we’re making available, we’ve chosen to do it in a responsible way with an age verification process," said Telus spokesman Jim Johanson.
Since it can see the web use data in aggregate (not individually) of what its customers do with their web-enabled phones, Telus was able to determine that a substantial number of customers were accessing adult web sites with their handhelds, he said.
"That’s allowed us to confirm our clients are visiting adult sites on their cell phones. We know that there is demand there," added Johanson.
He declined to say how much content is available or what suppliers it comes from, but AOV Canada is one of the brands Telus now offers on wireless, Cartt.ca has learned.
And, just like with adult content on television, don’t expect a big marketing campaign. "It’s the type of product that you don’t need to advertise," said Johanson. "Adults who are interested in that type of product tend to seek it out."
– Greg O’Brien
