A reliable rule of thumb... Is that any new communication medium will be most profitably pursued by the pornographers. Such will be the tale for trans-Atlantic touch:

In a milestone that conjures up the refrain to a Paul McCartney song, researchers at MIT and University College London have linked “hands across the water” in the first transatlantic touch, literally “feeling” each other’s manipulations of a small box on a computer screen. Potential applications abound. “In addition to sound and vision, virtual reality programs could include touch as well,” said Mandayam A. Srinivasan, director of MIT’s Touch Lab and leader of the MIT team. Imagine haptic (touch) feedback for a surgeon practicing telemedicine. What about artists from around the world collaborating on a virtual sculpture? They could create different forms, colors, sounds and textures accessible over the Internet. Students in a physics class might “feel” the forces within the nucleus of an atom. “That application could also be sent across a very widespread network,” Srinivasan said. “We really don’t know all of the potential applications,” he concluded. “Just like Bell didn’t anticipate all of the applications for the telephone.”

Well, since Srinivasan is unwilling to speculate, I will do so for him. The possibilities are endless: long distance relationships, phone sex, and prostitution will become far easier, and the insatiable demand for better touch for long-distance-sex will push the boundaries of the technology so that the "nobler" applications (research collaboration, remote surgery, etc.) will be enabled along the way. It's much like the internet was in the early 90's. Every teenaged male wanted the internet to download porn and free software, not to "surf the information superhighway", but the latter was an excellent fig leaf for the former when pitching the idea to skeptical parents. The same will be true for teletouch, or whatever they decide to call it...