Premium Rate Culture: The New Business of Mobile Interactivity
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444807080340
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Goggin, Gerard and Christina Spurgeon
New Media and Society
2007

Abstract:

This article considers a neglected but crucial aspect of the new business of mobile interactivity: the premium rate data services industry. It provides an international anatomy of this industry model and the ways in which it has been used to capitalize upon the surprising success of short message service (SMS) to provide a basis for the development of consumer markets for mobile data services. It situates this analysis within a wider consideration of the role of premium rate culture in the social shaping of interactivity in convergent media. Specifically, it looks at how premium rate services are being constructed in relation to telecommunications, television and the internet. The article concludes that although premium rate culture has rejuvenated innovation in broadcast television, potentially it may constrain the interactive potential of the mobile internet.