The James Kilgour Blog » Blyk

Blyk denies rumours of Orange Licensing

James Kilgour — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:45:16 +0000

Blyk, the fledgling MVNO offering free calls and texts to young people in exchange for ad messages, has denied that it will shortly be terminating service, and moving consumers over to the Orange Network. In a conversation with myself and Blyk Member care, I was given the following response:

James says
    Hi
4421421 / Kyle says
    Hi you are through to Kyle at Blyk, how can I help?
James says
    Hi. Is it true that Blyk will shortly be terminating service and licensing to Orange?
4421421 / Kyle says
    No it is not. If you want company changes you are best off checking the corporate website, Blyk.com.

I was myself a member of Blyk for around a year (see here), in which time I experienced numerous problems with the service. Recently, rumours have been spread of a possible Licensing Deal with Orange, for them to provide a free, ad-supported service, basically a repackaged Blyk, see here.

I do however still see this happening. In this recession, startups like Blyk are in danger. Their recent reduction to £15 a month free credit indicated a poor financial situation. Joining leauges with a major player like Orange would be hugely benneficial. We’ll have to wait and see.

Will Blyk Weather the Storm?

James Kilgour — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:56:58 +0000

I’ve written about Blyk a few times over the past year, since taking up the service. Basically, if you’re not familiar, Blyk is an ad-supported mobile network, which provides £15 free credit each month. See my other Blyk posts here.

Recently, Blyk changed to this £15 credit, from the previous offer of 217 texts and 43 minutes free each month. The new deal is actually a loss of around £10! Also, Blyk increased prices: 15p/min up to 24p/min! (They did reduce texts from 10p to 8p).

Next, Blyk started charging £10 for replacement sim cards if they are lost or stolen. Something that other UK networks don’t do. Also, they stopped the Text Balance enquiry service, and have also stopped issuing invites to the service!

It asks the question, is Blyk financially secure at all? Yes, we are in recession, but these steps are those of a company in dire straights. Hope Blyk will weather this storm that they seem to be in; Blyk is a good service, offering excellent value. I’ll be watching in the next few months.

Free mobile calls and texts with Blyk.

James Kilgour — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:44:44 +0000

Blyk is a new phenomenon in the mobile world. Not only do they offer completely free texts (217 a month!), but also 43 minutes of anytime, any network calls.

Halt! What’s the catch? Advertising. Every day, they send you up to 6 ad messages to your phone, 70% of which your phone has to receive by being on. Also, the service is only available for those out there who are between 16-24, living full time in the UK.

I’ve been using the service as my secondary phone for the past few months. I must say, actually the service is pretty decent. On average, I usually only get 2-3 ad texts a day, and there generally quite interesting. Just the other day, I got a free track download onto my phone from Alphabeat’s latest album, and last week I even got a free bottle of Lucozade using a voucher in an ad. There aren’t coverage problems either, as Blyk is powered by the expansive Orange network. For the amount of free texts and calls, the service is actually quite a good one.

The only real difficulty I’ve had was a month ago, when their text servers went down for two days, leaving me and thousands of other users unable to send messages. However, the Blyk team did post updates on their forum, and they allowed us to send free MMS messages instead for the weekend.

I’d definitely recommend it to any one out there who could do with lowering their phone bills; it just makes me wonder how the other networks can’t lower their prices.