Described herein are technologies that facilitate transfer of data-intensive content between portable telephones. Phones are configured to transmit data indicative of phone location to a proxy server by way of respective cellular network data connections. When a user of a phone wishes to acquire content that is labeled as shareable on another phone, the user of the phone initiates a location-based request, which causes the proxy server to provide a list of phones that are estimated to be in Wi-Fi range of such phone. The user thereafter selects a particular phone, and the proxy server instructs that phone to activate its Wi-Fi radio. The phone of the user additionally activates its Wi-Fi radio, and a peer-to-peer connection between phones is established. Thereafter, rich content is transferrable between the phones.