The UK-based ad-funded MVNO told Moconews its SMS and MMS ads have been generating a click-through rate of between 12 per cent and 43 per cent. It also says its biggest subscriber group is 17 to 20 year-olds, with a 52/48 male/female split. This is hardly surprising since Blyk is not actively marketing its service but ‘seeding’ it with university students.

Blyk launched is September in the UK with 45 ad-partners. The company is offering customers 43 minutes of voice and 217 texts a month for free as long as they opt in to receive up to six ads to their phone a day. If a user wishes to go beyond their monthly allowance they can buy more airtime on pre-pay (Blyk piggy backs the Orange network), charged at 10p per text and 15p per minute of voice.

Ads are delivered to the phone in one of three ways - as an MMS, regular SMS or something Blyk calls message 'tagging', whereby ads are attached as footers in texts sent between two people.

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