Ad-funded MVNO Blyk plans to expand beyond its UK base to Germany, Spain and Belgium next year, according to co-founder and chairman Pekka Ala-Pietila.

Talking to Reuters, he explained that all three are big advertising markets, and will thus suit Blyk's model of giving away free voice-call minutes and texts to users in return for them seeing and interacting with ads on their phones.

The company says it's signed up 100,000 customers in the UK, with its focus on teenagers and students. It also says the average response rate to these ads is 29 per cent, which is a leap ahead of traditional advertising rates.

But why should you care, being a mobile games company? Blyk isn't giving away games, after all. Not yet.

However, several sources have told PocketGamer.biz that this is likely to change in the near future, with Blyk currently assessing its options to diversify into mobile content, and actively interested in games.

That's hardly a surprise, given that companies like Greystripe have been working hard in the last year or two to build business models around ad-funded mobile games. These companies are surely prospective partners for Blyk when it does launch a mobile games offering.

In that context, then, news of expansion to European markets outside the UK with healthy advertising rates is an encouraging sign.