WWW- Pornography, which surged into one of the biggest businesses on the Internet, is now headed to cellphones.

In the latest twist to phone sex, porn purveyors are exploring ways to sell or give away pictures, sounds and even movie clips that can be downloaded to wireless phones. Last month, Playboy Enterprises announced it would begin delivering phone porn to wireless users in the United States by early 2005.

But Playboy is only the first of numerous companies looking to wireless as a new outlet for porn as mobile phones get more advanced and come with bigger screens and Internet capabilities.

“All the major players in this industry are looking at wireless as a big new channel,” said Adam Zawel, an analyst at technology research company Yankee Group.

While the porn industry is still only flirting with cellphones and other wireless devices for now, Zawel estimates by 2008 it will be a $90 million industry in the United States and a $1 billion business worldwide.

Soon, you – or the guy sitting next to you in a restaurant – may be able to dial up dirty pictures as easily as calling home. And if today’s cellphone rings aren’t disturbing enough, imagine one that moans erotically.

In other countries, the popularity of phone porn is already on the rise.

In Turkey, one popular adult site is visited more than 7 million times a week by subscribers to the Turkcell phone network, according to Yankee Group. In Italy, the site gets more than 3 million hits a week from Vodafone network customers.

Playboy already sells to major wireless markets such as Germany, Britain, Australia and Brazil.

“Given the extraordinary success we’ve had with our wireless offerings around the world, we felt the time was right to expand our wireless content to the millions of U.S. subscribers,” Randy Nicolau, president of distribution for the Playboy Entertainment Group, said in announcing the U.S. service.

So far, no one has found an easy way to make a buck off of phone porn. And it’s not likely that a tiny cellphone screen will ever displace the computer or the television for stag films or pictures.

But like the porn companies, some cellphone companies are taking steps to prepare for the potential growth of the industry.

Last July, Vodafone became the first of several wireless companies in Britain to begin selling phones that automatically come with “Content Control” programs aimed at prohibiting minors from visiting porn, gambling and other sites using their cellphones. Users must visit a Web site with their phone or computer and offer proof that they’re at least 18 years old before the blocking program is disabled.

Analyst Zawel characterized the move as a sign that British networks want to avoid legislation limiting phone porn, while at the same time setting the stage for offering porn as a subscription service. Vodafone officials could not be reached for comment.

In the United States, officials at most mobile phone companies say they don’t – and won’t – directly offer porn, mainly out of fear they’ll offend the majority of their customers.

“We’re not going to offer adult content,” said Ritch Blasi, spokesman for Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless, the nation’s biggest cellphone company.

Recently, Cingular even quit offering downloadable pictures of fully clothed porn stars, a service that was available through AT&T Wireless, which Cingular bought in October.

That said, there’s nothing to keep U.S. consumers with the newest cellphones from going to any third-party porn site in the world to download hard-core videos or pictures of naked men and women.

And they do.

A Canadian cellphone porn site gets more hits from U.S. cellphone users than more mainstream sites such as MSN, according to Yankee Group’s Zawel. PhoneBox Entertainment claims that more than 12 million visitors worldwide visit its two free cell porn sites every month.