Cell phones offer lusty rings and lingerie

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Cell phones offer lusty rings and lingerie
Denver firm adds provocative material to wireless service

By JAMES PATON
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Clint Fayling sits in a coffee shop gripping a cell phone that can pull up images of models clad in lingerie and download ring tones that would make a sailor blush.

The Denver-based entrepreneur hopes that the risque wireless phone features, and much more provocative ones at some point soon, will be as popular as a grande latte.

Fayling's fledgling outfit, Brickhouse Mobile, is working with pornography purveyors and other companies to deliver sexually explicit material -- including ring tones, wallpaper and video -- to mobile users.

New Frontier Media is one partner.

In Europe, South America and elsewhere around the world, such content is hardly unusual. Anything goes.

It's just getting started in the United States, and critics are likely to fight the trend, but like it or not, pornography has moved beyond the realm of magazines, home movies and the Internet.

Mobile phones are the next frontier.

Brickhouse Mobile already has deals with companies such as Vodafone to bring everything from pictures of naked women to hard-core porn videos to cell phones overseas, he said.

"In the U.S., it's a different story," Fayling said.

"There is great interest, and great hesitation. Carriers need to balance what will sell with the concerns of their subscribers."

For now, the content on American soil will be limited. Consumers will be able to see actresses doing strip teases, for instance, but the images will stop just short of full nudity.

The wallpaper pictures in the United States at this early juncture are akin to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

Fayling, a 41-year-old businessman and Michigan native, said the mainstream publication's highly anticipated annual magazine may be even racier and more revealing.

Brickhouse has reached pacts with a few smaller cell-phone service providers -- we're not talking about the Sprints, Verizons, the T-Mobiles of the world -- to test the content with subscribers.

Several million people in the United States, just a small sliver of the North American market, can find the material through these trials, he said.

Brickhouse Mobile doesn't make the content. It just helps steer the material to the next location.

The company aims to "mobilize" the brands of adult-content producers, formatting them for cell phones.

Fayling trusts that the material will gradually find a wider audience as more providers agree to serve it up, and that increasing demand will drive more technological innovation in the sector.

Eventually, the material now available in the United States may seem tame.

When the sexual content seen on mobile phones abroad hits American shores in the future, Fayling will be ready.

"Adult content is huge across the board, whether you're in Germany or Iowa," he says. "What we've learned is that what will work on the Internet will work on the mobile, too. There's no doubt it will be successful. It's just a matter of time."

Add P-I Business headlines to