The ‘free’ MVNO, which is readying itself for launch across Europe in October (later than its original 'summer' target), says its subscribers will be able to use the service to advertise their own goods in the same way as major consumer brands do.

Users will log on to the Blyk website, select opted-in target recipients (by geography, gender, etc) and then post an SMS. Blyk says it’ll be like eBay, but entirely mobile.

Jonathan MacDonald, sales director of Blyk, said: “There’s so much talk about mobile advertising, but it’s easy to overlook the potential of user-generated ads. Our system makes it easy for individuals to define and send ads to other users. I think they will – in big numbers.”

Blyk is an MVNO for 16-24 year-olds, which offers free calls and texts to any network at any time as long as subscribers agree to receive information, offers, competitions and the like from advertisers.