Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007    Text size: 

In the month since Canada’s second largest mobile carrier decided to offer its customers adult-oriented picture and video content, Telus has faced a wave of public backlash.

Vancouver’s Archbishop Raymond Roussin said he was considering canceling contracts the church has with Telus because the carrier’s decision makes pornography more accessible to the general public.

Businessman Gordon Keast of Surrey, Canada, filed suit against the carrier claiming that Telus had breached its contract with him because it now offered porn — something he did not wish to be associated with.

Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson said the carrier decided to drop porn after a number of customers called to complain and the company suffered a spell of cancellations.

“Some of our corporate customers too have called to try and understand the direction we were going,” he said. “Providing adult content is not a business our customers want us to be in. We have taken to heart some of the concerns that our customers have given us.”

Telus had originally decided to offer adult content through its network because it believed doing so was a responsible way to distribute pornography without making it accessible to children, Johannsson said, adding that 90 percent of the nation’s cell phones have Internet access.

“There was a fundamental lack of awareness among the people who called or wrote with concerns that cellphones are web-enabled devices,” Johannsson said. “Parents should take the same precautions about letting children use cellphones as they do with their home computers that are connected to the Internet.”