Blyk’s Growing Pains: MMS Not Fully Functioning
By Ingrid Lunden - Wed 26 Sep 2007 10:06 AM PST
Three days into its delayed-but-now-live, ad-funded mobile service for 16-24 year-olds, MVNO Blyk is already experiencing some technical problems: there is no MMS interoperability yet with other UK mobile networks. The site has the following message in its troubleshooting section: “Unfortunately picture message (MMS) connections between Blyk and other UK networks (e.g. Orange, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), 3 etc) are still under construction. This means that picture messages between Blyk and other UK networks are not yet being delivered. In the meantime, please use email to share photos with your friends.” But since data charges are not included in Blyk’s free offering of 43 voice minutes and 217 SMS/MMS texts, this will mean that users will need to pay 99p (nearly $2) per megabyte to send pictures. Blyk’s UK MD Leif Fagelstedt told telecoms.com that the decision to launch without MMS interconnect was a matter of priorities since getting its ad-serving platform right first was more important. But given that their younger target audience is possibly one of the few that actually uses MMS, it’s perhaps not the greatest start. No word from Blyk on when the problem will be resolved.
Posted in: Companies, Operators, MVNO, Countries, Europe, UK, Mobile Adv & Mktg
