As Free Mobile’s success in France shows, new operators and MVNOs are increasingly seeking to disrupt the mobile status quo, delivering innovative services to consumers. One of the most potentially interesting models is the advertising-funded approach, in which consumers receive some free services as long as they will accept adverts on their phones. UK-based Samba is the latest to try this, but it is stepping into a field littered with past failures.
Samba, which runs on the 3UK network, mainly targets laptop and tablet data users rather than phones, offering a low cost SIM card for £2.99 or a dongle for £20. If users watch 2.5 minutes of adverts per day, they get credit for more than 500Mbytes of data.
‘With Samba you earn the credit watching ads at a time that is convenient to you and then have access when you need it,’ co-founder Ben Atherton said in an interview with the BBC. ‘It also marks an end to that hunt for a coffee shop, pub, hotel or library to get online.’
The UK was also the launchpad for another ad-funded free service, Blyk, which targeted the youth market and mainly offered free voice and text in return for ads. However, despite a high profile launch and ‘ like Samba ‘ some premium advertisers, Blyk struggled to make profits from its 100,000-strong base. It closed its UK service in 2009 though it has been seeking to operate in India, and provides advertising services for carriers like Orange.