Free mobile phone calls, if you can put up with the ads

by Alex Kidman  |  Tuesday 27 May 2008
Free mobile phone calls, if you can put up with the ads

Bluetooth marketer Aura to launch “free” mobile calls within the next twelve months.

Aura Interactive is a company that offers free ad-targeted content to mobile phone users - if you've been through a Hoyts cinema recently you've probably been targeted by one of Aura's "Bluezone" mobile offers.

Today Aura's CEO Adam Dunne gave hints as to where its planning to expand in the next twelve months -- including the interesting prospect of offering free mobile phone calls on an ad-supported basis.

The free calls – and possibly free Internet access – are still in the pipeline; in Dunne's presentation he mentioned “in the next twelve months”, but when pressed, Dunne claimed it was all still in preliminary planning.

“We might use a model where a customer listens to a voice advertisement before their call, or possibly some kind of landing page to visit prior to making a call” he told PC Authority.

Aura's marketing agreement with companies employing Bluezone typically covers WiFi as well, and while Dunne said they'd experimented with Bluetooth delivery of calls, WiFi was a more likely target, but that the general lack of WiFi in consumer phones was a limiting factor.

Would you use a free mobile service if it meant having to listen to ads beforehand? Add your comment below.
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Comments: 6
Pacman
27 May 2008
 This is old news. A sweedish company was going to do this years ago on landlines... And it's still never happened, because I doubt advertisers are willing to put down the money to make the service viable on a mass scale.


Comment made about the PC Authority article:
Free mobile phone calls, if you can put up with the ads?
Bluetooth marketer Aura to launch “free” mobile calls within the next twelve months. Maybe now we'll afford to payoff our N95.

What do you think? Join the discussion.
Alex Kidman
27 May 2008
 Sure, the concept is by no means sparkling fresh -- plenty of companies burnt through cash like nobody's business trying to get "ad supported" (insert tech here) to draw a profit back in the late 1990s.

It'll be interesting to see if it can be launched here -- and what the conditions are like for users of the service. Aura's take is an interesting one though, as they'd presumably have some measure of overall control -- they're only talking about offering it within their Bluezone areas -- Hoyts Cinemas, some shopping centres and the like...
Slatts
26 July 2008
 Interesting concept but I can't see it taking off. People just don't want to take the time to put up with it. If you want to talk to someone you want to do it now, not after the coke add.](*,)
.:Cyb3rGlitch:.
26 July 2008
 mr4top, your post was deleted because of advertising. Please refrain from doing so in the future. Thank you.
Slatts
27 July 2008
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. wrote:
mr4top, your post was deleted because of advertising. Please refrain from doing so in the future. Thank you.

how ironic. Deleting an advertising post on a thread about advertising:lol:
Hobo_Joe
15 September 2008
 another ad I take it?

Advertising in medium where we're used to having our freedom is a bad idea. I'm with Slattsy, I know I wouldn't be able to stand it.. Hell I'd pay to REMOVE the adverts haha
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