Blyk is a free mobile service targetted at 16-24 year old people in the UK. Using Orange for their network infrastructure, they offer 43 minutes and 217 SMS messages for free each month in return for profiling information and sending targetted ads to users via picture messaging (MMS). Colgate are amongst the initial brands experimenting with the platform.

I’ve long predicted that voice calls on mobile are approaching zero cost. As average revenue per user (ARPU) inexorably declines, cash for mobile companies will increasingly come from advertising.