Dear Industry Executive

Blyk to the future? Ad-funded calling goes live

Does the launch of Blyk, the ad-funded free to use MVNO aimed at kids mark a turning point for mobile advertising? The founders of the company — which went live this week after its launch in November last year — certainly think so. They are pinning their hopes on kids wanting free calls and texts and the fact that they can, in return, serve up adverts to the users that are targeted and useful.

And they may be on to something. A study published just before Easter conducted by TNS Media and Entertainment of 6000 consumers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, found that a majority would accept advertising on their phones in return for cheap calls.

Sounds like a win-win for Blyk. But, there may be a fly in the ointment. Blyk is an MVNO, so has no direct live data of customer usage, so how will it be able to effectively target users with ads that are relevant? All that appears to be open to it is good old fashioned CRM and historical customer usage data. This means that what it offers advertisers is far more commoditised than the sales pitch might have us believe.

Is that a bad thing? Probably not. The company should still be able to make quite an impression with loosely targeted ads and the youth market is still likely to snap it up since there will be both the cache of having free calls and the fact that for every free call and text made, the pocketmoney goes a little further. All good stuff if you are 15, but is it strong enough to build a business on?

Yours

Paul Skeldon

paul.skeldon@contentfutures.com

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Ad-funded mobile service ready to go with deals with Nokia and First Hop

Ad-funded mobile service Blyk, which goes live in the UK this week is changing the face of mobile — at least for youthful users. Blyk delivers a free mobile phone service for young consumers in return for them interacting with relevant brand advertising. For advertisers Blyk offers a medium to run highly targeted and fully measurable advertising campaigns by using its multiple creative ad formats.

Blyk will initially offer its mobile services in the UK, before expanding to other European countries. The service is scheduled for commercial launch in mid 2007.

As the company goes live, it has announced that Nokia Siemens Networks, securing its first full network hosting contract, will host the service and mobile services company First Hop will handle the all-important advertising for the service.

Under the hosting arrangement, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide the entire core network to Blyk, including mobile softswitching. Hosting is one of the many tools that help operators to grow their business in the face of ever-toughening competition and growing technological complexity.

“For advertisers and agencies, Blyk provides advertising inventories in an entirely new way which makes planning, booking and designing mobile media possible like any media is utilised today. First Hop is playing a key role in this infrastructure to make these inventories alive in our service in a reliable, real-time and easy-to-access manner”, says Timo Ahopelto, Head of Strategy and Business Development at Blyk.

Vanessa Zheng, an Analyst at Juniper Research supports the launch of Blyk. "According to Juniper Research the mobile advertising market will reach £19.6 billion by 2012. Operators that want to generate revenues in this new market will need to focus on implementing the service delivery platforms that will enable them to profit from this trend."

Read More: http://about.blyk.com/pdf/Blyk_Press_Release_02112006.pdf

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Australian mobile TV trials get underway this week

A new mobile TV trial, conducted by Irdeto Access, has started in Sydney following the go-ahead from regulator ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority). Using capacity on the so-called “Channel B” digital-terrestrial TV bandwidth, the DVB-H trial starts this week and last three months. Channel B is one of the two channels due to be auctioned off shortly and is likely to be used for mobile TV. The auction process is on track to start in May.

A major part of the trial will be Irdeto Access demonstrating to content owners that it can deliver a secure platform on DVB-H networks, as well as assessing how DVB-H operates with a variety of mobile handsets and network operators. Another DVB-H trial, conducted by a Broadcast Australia subsidiary, ran from June 2005 until the end of January 2007.

Chris Chapman, ACMA’s chairman, said: “Information gathered in relation to the Irdeto Access trial will assist in continuing to inform ACMA, the government and other stakeholders on the technical characteristics of the DVB-H system and market interest in new technologies such as mobile television.”

ACMA has also agreed to extend a datacasting trial currently being conducted by Broadcast Australia in Sydney on capacity which is part of Channel A, the other slice of bandwidth due to be auctioned off. Known as Digital 44, the datacasting trial incorporates “channels” from providers including the ABC, Channel New South Wales, the Australian Christian Channel, Macquarie Digital and the Federal Parliament. Datacasting is akin to interactive TV without the interactivity, in that it delivers text or data-based content to a television screen.

Read More: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21530364%5E15347%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html

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Vodafone set to pioneer standard NFC commerce on SIM cards

Vodafone and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), a leading smart card manufacturer, are teaming up to develop a secure storage element for Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones that will fit on a SIM card.

NFC is the wireless-based technology that enables contactless transmission of data between two devices over short distances — ideal for transactions with point of sale devices and ticketing machines, such as London Underground’s Oyster card.

With their proven, highly secure smart card technology, SIM cards are a natural choice for securely storing information, such as, credit card functions or railroad tickets in mobile phones. Vodafone and G&D will continue developing the specification before making it available to a wider audience in the middle of the year.

Numerous NFC pilot projects have been set up. In Germany, Vodafone and Deutsche Bahn have just announced a project for a new electronic ticketing system on the basis of NFC together with G&D and other partners. The first pilot tests with Touch&Travel are scheduled for this year on the ICE's Berlin to Hanover service, on metropolitan sub-network and on all the municipal public transport services in Brandenburg's state capital, Potsdam. If the pilot tests are successful, the product will be introduced throughout Germany.

In a bid to take mobile NFC systems mainstream at a manufacturer-independent and global level, the industry is currently working on creating the necessary standards to ensure interoperability between all system components. This objective is also behind the initiative launched by Vodafone and G&D to establish SIM cards as a standard, trusted mobile NFC application host.

Read More: http://www.gi-de.com/portal/page?_pageid=44,134571&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

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Alltell offers handset with built in search key

Alltel Wireless, the US’s largest network, is set to be the first carrier to sell handsets with a built in dedicated search key, following a deal with mobile search and advertising solutions company JumpTap.

The search key launches an Alltel-branded BREW client that presents Alltel subscribers with a search box to find content, services and information on the mobile internet. The visibility of the dedicated key will not only increase the uptake of mobile search, but also will increase content purchases by helping subscribers find what they want quickly and easily, hopes the carrier.

“At Alltel, we are constantly striving to make the mobile experience simpler and more enjoyable,” Wade McGill, senior vice president of product management for Alltel Wireless, says. “We have successfully used dedicated keys in the past to provide content we wanted to make readily available, including games and ringtones. It’s been proven that the easier it is for subscribers to find applications, the more likely it is that they will be adopted”

The LG8600 handset will be the first to have the search application embedded into a handset. The search functionality will be embedded on additional handsets over the coming months. All enabled handsets will feature a magnifying glass search icon on the key that will launch the Alltel-branded search box when depressed.

Read More: http://www.alltel.com/corporate/media/media.html

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Vamos amigos! Mobile Community “itsmy.com” launches Spanish language version in US

Mobile communities are growing fast and are starting to exploit ethnic and social niches. This week mobile community itsmy.com has launched a Spanish speaking version so that the millions of Spanish speakers in the US can form communites through mobile with the rest of the Spanish speaking mobile and online world.

The free site already gives access to some 300,000 Spanish web and wap sites and users can now create their own mobile homepage, blogs, picture and video libraries and enter in to chat sessions worldwide.

“This is very exciting for Spanish native speakers: a sophisticated mobile web site to indulge their passion, communication, and this not only with words, but also with their latest pictures and videos directly uploaded from their mobile phone!”, says Juan José Mejías, Content Manager for Hispano-America at itsmy.com.

Read More: http://mobile.itsmy.com

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Photo library Stockphoto goes in to the wallpaper business

Stock imagery company Stockphoto is entering the wallpaper and mobile graphics business, making a selection of its most visited photo library in the world available on mobile.

Stockphoto has selected AMUSE Entertainment Group B.V. for the pilot phase of the programme, which will be launched in the UK this month and will allow mobile users to download wallpapers from a selection of 5000 of iStockphoto’s images from dedicated mobile storefronts accessed through the iStockphoto website.

Marketed and promoted jointly by iStock and AMUSE, images will be made available to UK mobile phone subscribers on the 3, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone and will be delivered via mBlox.

“People want their gadgets to feel uniquely theirs, including their mobile phones,” says Garth Johnson, vice president of business development at iStockphoto. “Amuse and iStock have now opened a new range of personalisation possibilities with iStock’s diverse, global image collection.”

The initial rollout will commence next week and will be expanded into other territories such as Canada and the US based on success of the pilot. The second stage of this agreement will see the iStock library of more than 1.5 million images opened to AMUSE’s broader distribution network providing access to a market of almost 1 billion people worldwide.

Read More: http://www.istockphoto.com/press_release.php

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Volantis and Mobixell Announce Joint Mobile Video Offering, Available for Immediate Deployment

Volantis and Mobixell have announced a partnership to deliver a broad variety of multimedia capabilities optimized for every media type, mobile device, and value added service (VAS).

The two companies have completed development on a fully integrated mobile video solution that takes advantage of Mobixell’s unique multimedia capabilities (supported by its recent acquisition of Adamind), together with Volantis’ market-leading content delivery platform.

For more information please visit http://www.volantis.com

Market Analysis Report:

Converged Wireless VoIP Handsets & Equipment

Current Markets (2005-2006) & Forecasts (2007-2012)

Price: £1490 (Single User) £1990 (Multi User) £2990 (Enterprise Wide)

The marriage of VoIP and wireless technology has gained a lot of attention in the last couple of years, with many industry experts believing it to be the next killer application to revolutionise the telecoms space.

This report offers a clear understanding of current market activity and future potential, focusing on business opportunities for VoIP over Wi-Fi/WiMAX, and the drivers and barriers to successful VoIP over Wi-Fi adoption; while evaluating technologies & challenges associated with interoperability between wireless & cellular infrastructure.

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