Blyk is MVNO - Say What?

An MVNO is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It is a company that doesn't own a licensed frequency spectrum. A MVNO resells wireless services under their own brand name using a licensed frequency spectrum of a mobile phone operator (MPO). MVNOs' roles and their relationships to the MPO vary from market to market. Usually, an MVNO is a company that works independently of the operator thus being able to decide its own pricing. The first MVNOs were launched in 1990s. Nowadays, there are over 200 MVNOs, and it is interesting to notice that not all of them are targeted to the consumer markets - there are also enterprise markets!

MPOs doesn't consider MVNOs as a competitive threat. There is a simple explanation to that. MVNO models mean lower operational costs for mobile operators, such as billing, sales, customer service and marketing. They also grow average revenue per user by providing new applications and tariff plans and also can help with difficult issues, such as how to deal with fixed-mobile convergence. Generally, there are three reasons for MPO to allow MVNOs on their networks. First, mobile operators often find it difficult to succeed in all customer segments. MVNOs are a way to implement a more specific marketing mix. Secondly, many MPOs have capacity, product and segment needs. An MVNO strategy can generate economies of scale for better network utilisation. Thirdly, MVNOs can help MPOs target customers with specialized service requirements and get customer niches that mobile operators can't get to.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and it uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mobile virtual network operator.

What is Blyk.com?

The new mobile operator has been launched in UK. Blyk is free mobile operator for European users. It is free to use because the service is funded by advertising. They are launching in the UK-market in mid-2007. Other European countries will have their service later.

The concept of the Blyk is announced to be new, but in my opinion this isn't true. The concept of having free calls and SMS, if you accept to receive commercial ads, was already established in the end of 1990s. The problem then was that back then the technology wasn't mature enough. Now, these problems have been overcomed; it is possible to gather enough information from the target audience. This is where the second condition of the free service appears; you have to continuosly maintain the profile of yourself. In short, this kind of concept is not new, it is only enhanced one. The future will show us whether it disappears from the market or not! At this point, Blyk's future seems bright: it has gained lots of attention from the press worldwide.