The huge amount of bandwidth used by Japanese cellular subscribers downloading so much video, including, apparently, lots of porn, is forcing Japan’s cellular operators to implement bandwidth caps on their formerly unlimited data plans, according to Reuters.
The article says because of network congestion, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have to impose limits on their heaviest users, and Softbank, the third largest Japanese operator, is considering data usage limits. Because of privacy regulations, the cellular operators say they don’t know what videos their subscribers are downloading, but they will admit porn probably is one category, Reuters reports.
However, major Japanese porn Web sites, such as Soft on Demand (see below), aren’t reticent about saying that downloads to cellular phones are increasing, and the market is still in the early stages. Hirotaka Ishimori, the head of Soft on Demand’s online division, says revenues from the company’s cellular site — which offers free sample videos and DVD sales — is 15 million yen ($161,235) a month.
Cellular porn to increase dramatically
Reuters says, “Global revenue from pornography on mobile devices will more than double to $4.9 billion in the five years to 2013, while music sales will grow by about a third, said Juniper [Research], which provides global research on the telecommunication industry and includes Finland’s Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, Apple and Microsoft Corp. among its clients.”
Cellular subscribers in the United States who look for porn videos to download can find it, although it doesn’t seem to be a major problem for U.S. operators. At least, they aren’t talking about it; it’s an embarrassment.
In 2001 I moderated and put together for the CTIA’s Wireless annual conference what might have been the first panel in the country to discuss the potential problems of porn in the U.S. The panel sparked CNET News to write about the subject before the meeting was held.
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