Last but not least: Deal or no deal

 16- to 24-year-olds in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Spain will soon be offered free phone calls and text messages by the Finnish-British mobile phone company Blyk in return for agreeing to receive advertising messages on their cell phone. Young people are particularly interested in advertising and are therefore better suited to this type of model than other age groups, says Blyk, explaining the exclusion of all those who have already reached the age of 25. The offer is already working successfully in England. In our northern neighboring country, however, not everyone is yet convinced that the deal will work: "Even with a free model, the acceptance of advertising among cell phone owners remains questionable," says Volker Nickel, spokesman for the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry. Interested young people should perhaps also be reminded of the fate of Goethe's Faust: He also thought he was making a good deal when he sold his soul to Mephiosto in order to achieve earthly happiness. All he got out of it was an unhappy love affair with Gretchen. And the telecoms company that advertises with a devil offering bad deals is not exactly prospering in this country either. After all, there has been speculation for weeks as to whether Tele 2 in Switzerland will pull out of the mobile business. Remember: stay away from cheap deals.