As far as I am aware the free element is and was only ever to be up to a certain amount each month.. Such that not everything is free.. To that end, I suspect (ahem) that they will be offering shortcode services in line with other networks that do pay out revenue – i.e. premium services are still premium for Blyk users.

In terms of what’s actually free, I suspect they have lots and lots of clever algorithms to work out what you get and when you get it based on what advertising you’ve seen.

With your final point, as per what I’ve mentioned above; Blyk has never claimed that all calls all texts and all content would be entirely free (well not to my knowledge anyway)… There will be a mix of free and paid for services and the amount of ‘free stuff’ will vary.

At least you’ve got Extreme though (if they ever launch – and I really don’t think they should)

The way I see it –
- Blyk could support shortcodes and offer 0% revenue share to content providers, or
- they could go bankrupt as people quickly work out that Blyk sims are a great way of buying ringtones without having to pay for them, or
- Blyk is all hype, and the “free calls” concept is actually just “30 free calls a month if you top up at least £10″

Stelios basically picks up what he believes to be good ideas and rebrands them with Easy in the hope that his hunch was right, and that the business model works. Worked with Jet, didn’t work with Mobile.

It also suits him to hang onto the tail coats of trailblazers, and it suits him to have competiton. Note his ‘battle’ with CPW’s ‘Fresh’ the last time around..

I strongly suspect the EasyMobile ‘free’ calls concept is a slight case of hot-air.. That said it would be really really interesting to see more than one player in this market!!

After all I wouldn’t even be surprised to realize that Blyk is in fact just a place holder for the new easyMobile. The two companies have not yet launched, they share the same business model, are located in the same city and want to start their businesses in the same market at nearly the same time.

Maybe they just are the same?

Why do you say that? Are you insuating they won’t offer shortcode services, or that they’ll not offer large volume services such as X-Factor. Not a dig, I’m generally interested..

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/13/rh_edblog_2/