Mobile calls could be free, thanks to advertising

Over in Europe a mobile virtual network operator called Blyk is planning to offer a free mobile phone service funded by advertising. It is a concept that deserves to be taken very seriously.

Blyk (www.blyk.com) plans to launch in the UK in mid 2007 and then to expand into other European countries. And if you are tempted to dismiss it as a crackpot with little chance of getting of the ground, think again.

The concept is not entirely new, as I wrote back in 2005, commenting on the launch of just such a service for fixed line phone calls, from Communitel it was tried in Australia in the early nineties. However the investment and the scale of Blyk's planned operation is of an entirely different order. As is the potential for two way dialogue between advertiser and target that SMS and today's web-enabled phones offer.

[Source & More: itwire]