Blyk

Blyk was founded by two Finns, Pekka Ala-Pietilä (formerly president of Nokia), and Antti Öhrling (ex-chairman and founder of the Contra advertising group). Its headquarters were in Helsinki but it also had an office in London. In February 2007 they appointed Jonathan MacDonald from the Ministry of Sound as UK Sales Director. In October 2007 Shaun Gregory was appointed UK CEO; he resigned on 9 January 2009 for personal reasons. Following Gregory's resignation, Antti Ohrling took over as UK CEO.

Before February 2009, the network offered 43 free minutes and 217 free texts to be used each month. Balances were reset after 30 days, so unused credit did not roll over. If the balance was used up before the monthly reset, users could pay 15p/min and 10p/text; thus, the free credit was worth £28.15.

In February 2009, the rates were changed to 24p/min and 8p/text. At this level, the free balance would have been worth £27.68/month. However, the system was also altered so that users' balances now reset to £15.00 every month. This can be spent on any combination of calls, texts, picture messages and data. Some people think this was because the company was making cutbacks due to the recession.

In July 2009, Blyk announced that they were ending their service in the UK at the end of August, to become a partner for other established operators, including Orange in the UK and Vodafone in the Netherlands.

The Blyk service in the United Kingdom ended for all members on 26 August 2009. Blyk became instead a partner to other established operators, globally. According to their website, they were working with Vodafone in the Netherlands, Aircel in India and with Orange in the United Kingdom.

Blyk was distinguished by the age restriction that it operated for its membership. The 16-24 age range is exclusive and was applied by means of ID checks with several national databases during sign up. Members who joined before turning 25 were not removed from the network on their 25th birthday, but were unable to rejoin if they left.

Membership was by invitation only, available via special promotions and from existing members. Potential members joined the network via its website. As part of the process they were asked a range of profiling questions. Blyk used the information it gathered to target them with relevant advertising messages at a rate of up to 6 a day. On 25 September 2007 it was reported by telegraph.co.uk that the company had secured 44 brands for blyk's service, including Coca-Cola, NatWest, Boots Group, and MasterCard.

On 24 April 2008, Blyk announced that they had reached their twelve-month target of 100,000 clients six months ahead of schedule.