Blyk will no longer offer members 217 mins and 43 texts.

Instead, the team at Blyk have decided to offer a more comprehensive package of £15 of credit per month which members can use on whatever they wish… almost.

Calls, SMS, MMS and data are included but premium services are not.

OK, this looks pretty cool. I am a big fan of making the service as flexible as possible and have no doubt that members will enjoy accessing their chosen social network(s), email accounts, maps etc. for free BUT if a member just wants to make calls and send texts then they are quite a lot worse off – Ricky Chotai at Mobile Industry Review is sharp with numbers and has run the maths to find out exactly what is being gained/lost, check his smart post out here.

So mins and text are reduced but at least you can go and buy whatever content you want – No.

Blyk launched a major content offering at the start of this year which looks impressive… aesthetically anyway, haven’t had the chance to use it.

It seems like you can use your credit to surf the portal but not to actually purchase content, you’ll have to top up with real money for that.

This is smart for two reasons.

Firstly, because it will encourage members to browse the content portal and inevitably some of them will top up and buy ringtones, games, wallpapers etc. thus creating an additional revenue stream.

Secondly and in my opinion, most importantly – Blyk has created extra inventory to sell to advertisers in the form of interstitials, pre-rolls, banners, branded gaming et al.

Not bad – They have managed to increase advertising revenue potential, decrease cost of maintaining members AND offer members more choice on how they wish to communicate.

Smart move ,but everyone already knows that these guys are no fools – Just check out the management team.