Subscribers to UK ad-funded MVNO Blyk are allegedly turning off their phone’s messaging function in order to avoid receiving ads, according to the Inquirer citing a tip from a “disgruntled customer”.

But Blyk’s COO Leif Fagelstedt denied this was happening and said it was more likely a misunderstanding over how the MVNO’s system works. To get full membership, subscribers must install the correct MMS/picture messaging settings on their phone, which the MVNO said is an easy process on 60 to 70 percent of the MMS capable devices that the Blyk network recognises (around 95 percent of all MMS handsets)—meaning that it’s not so easy on the remaining 30-40 percent. Blyk says there are some 2,400 different handsets in the UK that are compatible with their network.

Blyk launched nearly four months ago and says it has already run 400 different ad campaigns with a typical response rate of around 29 per cent. Mobile Entertainment reports that one campaign for Penguin books—in which users could download an audio chapter of Nick Hornby’s novel Slam—had a click-through rate of 45 per cent. In November, Sales director Jonathan MacDonald told PCUK the ads users receive had click-through rates of between 12 and 43 percent, depending on the format (Blyk does SMS, text-and-picture MMS, photos, animations, video and a bespoke format). The MVNO also says it is “slightly ahead” of its internal goal of amassing 100,000 users within a year of its launch. It expects to have half of that number—50,000—by March, and reiterated that it was signing on 3,000 users a week.

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