Blyk expands after UK launch

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Blyk, the advertising-funded mobile phone operator has announced plans to roll out its service in Germany, Spain and Belgium, having already launched in the UK.

The company, which has failed to respond to numerous requests from IT PRO for access to its service for review purposes, is also planning a launch in Holland later this year.

Finnish-British Blyk is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), much like Virgin Mobile. Blyk resells capacity on the Orange network in the UK under its own brand, but differentiates itself by offering a preset number of free calls and text messages to its 16 to 24 year old customer based in return for users accepting advertisements onto their phone via text message and picture message. In the UK it offers 217 texts and 43 minutes of voice calls per month for receiving up to six texts a day from brands including Adidas and Manchester United.

Germany and Spain are among Europe's biggest ad markets and Belgium's ad spending per capita is among the region's highest, Blyk's co-founder and chairman, Pekka Ala-Pietila, said in an interview.

Ala-Pietila, a former president of phone maker Nokia, said the firm was in advanced talks with operators over network renting in the new markets.

"These talks are in quite a late stage," he said.

"The concept can be adjusted to several markets," Ala-Pietila said. "Our target is not to stop at five."

(Additional reporting by Robert Hetz and Georgina Prodhan, Reuters, and Chris Green, IT PRO)

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