Telus bows to pressure, ends phone porn downloads

Telus Corp., Canada's No. 2 telephone company, has decided to stop offering pornography for downloading to mobile phones after complaints from hundreds of customers and criticism from Catholic church officials.

"It was the type of feedback and the sincerity of it that caused us to reflect on the service and ultimately to withdraw it," Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson said in an interview.

Telus was the first North American carrier to offer adult content for direct cellphone downloads, although hard-core pornography is readily available for download from countless Web sites and for viewing on adult channels offered by scores of cable-TV companies.

Since January, users have been able to download images for C$3 and videos for C$4 from Telus after having their age verified by a third-party service. Nudity was offered, but no sex, Johannsson said.

Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver took aim at Telus's decision to offer adult content. Its official newspaper, the B.C. Catholic, quoted Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin as saying the company's plan was "disappointing and disturbing."

The archbishop cited growing awareness of addiction to pornography over the Internet as well as the "abuse that this perpetuates of vulnerable persons."

"We haven't spoken to them directly on this," Johannsson said of the archdiocese. "Certainly we heard their concerns, but at the same time, we heard concerns from many, many consumers ... over the past few weeks."

Those who wish to use cellphones to download pornography will still be able to gain access to adult Web sites via their Internet-enabled devices.

"Our withdrawal of the service doesn't restrict access to the open Internet in any way," Johannsson said.

Telus was surprised about how few people understood that today's cellphones are Web-enabled, he said, adding "not a lot folks are aware of how much power they've got clipped to their beltloops."

Telus shares were down 15 Canadian cents, to C$58.23, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

By: Wojtek Dabrowski, Reuters (Via: Yahoo!News) [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070221/wl_canada_nm/canada_telus_porn_col_2]

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