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PC World: Mobile operator Blyk will launch its ad-supported free phone service in Germany, Spain and Belgium next year, it said Wednesday. The company offers U.K. subscribers free telephony and messaging (up to a point) in exchange for receiving ads on their phone.

Blyk has already announced plans to expand its service to the Netherlands in the second half of this year.

The service is aimed at 18 to 24 year olds, which are given 43 minutes of talk and 217 text messages per month, in exchange for receiving up to six commercial messages per day from companies like Coca-Cola, Penguin and L’Oreal.

The model has already had some success in the U.K., according to Blyk. In April the operator announced it had reached 100,000 members, six months ahead of schedule.

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The Guardian: Cash-strapped students will be able to save their money for books and more likely beer with the launch on Monday of a new mobile service which offers free calls and texts if customers agree to receive advertising on their phone. 

Blyk, a startup run by the former president of Finnish mobile firm Nokia, is targeting the key 16-to-24-year old market with 217 free texts and 43 minutes of talktime every month. It has signed up 45 brands from McDonald’s and Coca Cola to Boots and L’Oreal who want to target this key demographic.

“There’s no contract, no cash, no hooks. You don’t have to do anything and you get it every month for free,” said cofounder and chief executive Pekka Ala-Pietila. “This could mean for up to 4.5 million young people in the UK no more phone bills.”

But the launch of Blyk, which uses the Orange network for its service and can be used by anyone with a mobile phone that can receive picture messages, will raise further concerns about the way that advertisers are circumventing traditional regulated advertising markets such as TV to get at the youth market.

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Guardian: This summer, Britain’s teenagers will be able to stop badgering their parents to pay off their mobile phone bills, with the launch of a new service that offers free calls and texts provided users are willing to receive adverts on their phones.Blyk, a start-up run by the former president of the Finnish mobile firm Nokia, will today announce it has signed deals with advertisers including Coca-Cola, L’Oréal and Buena Vista, part of the Disney media empire, as it works up to a summer launch in the UK. (…)

Blyk, which is aiming for the 16- to 24-year-old market, is also understood to be close to a deal with mobile phone operator Orange to run the service over its network. Orange refused to comment, saying only that it was always on the lookout for partners.

Advertisers are starting to look at mobiles as a useful medium. Google is experimenting with mobile search advertising, tying up partnerships with several operators. In the US, Virgin Mobile has launched Sugar Mama, which gives customers free airtime if they agree to watch adverts and give feedback. Also in the US, Xero Mobile is testing an ad-funded service aimed at college students.

(more…)

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