A new US mobile network that markets itself as 'Jesus-centric' launched on 5 May 2026 with a feature no American carrier has offered before. Radiant Mobile permanently blocks all pornography at the network level, and even adult subscribers can't turn the filter off.
The service, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) running on T-Mobile's 5G infrastructure, costs $29.99 (£22) per month for unlimited talk, text, and data.
But the pornography block isn't the only filter baked into the plan. A separate 'sexuality' category that targets LGBTQ and gender-related content is switched on by default across every device on an account. Parents can also block platforms like TikTok and YouTube through built-in controls.
One Man Draws the Lines
Founder Paul Fisher told MIT Technology Review that the network would be 'void of pornography, void of LGBT, void of trans.' Fisher didn't come from telecoms. He spent more than three decades as a talent agent in the fashion industry, representing models including Naomi Campbell.
The filtering technology comes from Israeli cybersecurity firm Allot, which sorts website domains into more than 100 categories. Allot sales director Anthony Re confirmed to MIT Technology Review that the company doesn't operate a dedicated gender category. That means Fisher himself is making the editorial calls on which domains fall under 'sexuality'.
The results are already visible. Yale University's main website remains accessible because it sits in Allot's education category. But lgbtq.yale.edu, a subdomain for the university's LGBTQ resources, has been placed in the sexuality category and blocked. Fisher warned that if LGBTQ content appeared prominently on Yale's main pages, the entire domain could follow.
Adults Can't Opt Out of the Porn Block
David Choffnes, a computer science professor and executive director of Northeastern University's Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, said the permanent pornography filter sets Radiant apart.
Network-level blocking is a tool long used by authoritarian governments for censorship, and US telecoms already apply it to malware domains. What's new, Choffnes told MIT Technology Review, is a US cell plan that locks adults into content restrictions they can't remove.
The 'sexuality' filter, unlike the pornography block, can be toggled off by adult account holders. But it is enabled by default, meaning any subscriber who doesn't actively change the setting will have LGBTQ-related health, education, and community resources blocked automatically.
Backed by $17.5 Million and Nvidia's VP
Radiant Mobile has received $17.5 million (£13 million) in investment from Compax Ventures, the investment arm of CompaxDigital, which manages the technical relationship between Radiant and T-Mobile. Nvidia vice president Roger Bringmann is the company's lead investor and silent partner.
Fisher has contacted thousands of churches across the US, offering to direct a portion of each monthly subscription to a subscriber's chosen congregation. Chief operating officer Chris Klimis, an Orlando minister, said 67% of pastors had a personal history of pornography use, citing a Barna Research survey. Klimis called the service a way to 'close the door to the digital space.'
A Precedent for a Filtered Internet
If the model gains traction, it could inspire similar filtered networks built around other religious or political demographics. Fisher has already named South Korea and Mexico as expansion targets, citing their large Christian populations.
The idea of a carrier acting as a permanent gatekeeper over what adults can see online has no precedent in the US market. Choffnes questioned whether the approach could work at scale, noting how difficult it is to maintain an accurate blocklist when websites don't fit neatly into single categories. A news outlet that publishes enough gender-related articles could see its entire domain reclassified and blocked.
Radiant Mobile has not published an appeals process for subscribers who believe content has been wrongly filtered.
