'Ringback' Tones May Be Next Big Thing

Sun Nov 28, 6:35 PM ET  Technology - AP

By BRUCE MEYERSON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - Ring tones are so yesterday. If wireless companies have their way, the next multibillion-dollar surprise in the cellular business will be "Ringback" tones.

Instead of the usual dialing noise that people hear when phoning someone, callers to Verizon Wireless subscribers may soon find themselves listening to a song until the phone is answered.

The service, pioneered by SK Telecom of Korea, is debuting in the United States in California and is slated to be available nationally by mid-2005.

Verizon Wireless, a partnership between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, is charging 99 cents per month plus an annual fee of $1.99 for each Ringback Tone chosen. Other U.S. carriers are said to be considering a similar service.

Verizon subscribers can assign specific tunes for different callers to hear, choosing among 2,200 songs from 13 music genres provided by Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

SK Telcom, which developed the technology being used by Verizon, introduced its "ColoRing" service in Korea two years ago and has since licensed it to carriers in Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia.


About a third of SK Telecom's 18 million customers were using the service after the first year, generating monthly revenues of $8 million, said Michele Mackenzie, an industry analyst for Ovum, a London-based technology consulting firm.

T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, led the way in Europe with the launch of "Caller Tunes" about a year ago. In June, T-Mobile reported 500,000 customers in Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Although similar services have been introduced by Vodafone Germany, Telefonica Spain and Tele2 Sweden, ringback revenues for all of western Europe are expected to total just $16 million for 2004, Mackenzie estimates.

She and others are skeptical that ringback tones can duplicate the success of ring tones, noting that people who pay for them never get to actually hear them.

"Ringback tones are, essentially, a fashion statement. Their only real purpose is to show off to others who are calling you. The problem, then, is that fashion statements go out of fashion — sometimes very quickly," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041128/ap_on_hi_te/cell_ringback_tones

Another reason why I am reluctant to buy cellphones. I'm a little bit of a old-fashioned guy, as are the majority of Hoosiers. So I'll stick with my ringtone and plain checkbooks. ;)

I'm getting a cell phone shortly, and it's gonna ring like a ring, no monkey sounds or Hendrix on my phone, thanks.

I'm getting a cell phone shortly, and it's gonna ring like a ring, no monkey sounds or Hendrix on my phone, thanks.
Are you going to get one that's shaped like a shoe???

I'm with Maxwell... Ringtones get out of hand.

I keep putting my Grandma's on "Turkey In The Straw"... She hates it!  ;D  ;D  ;D

Are you going to get one that's shaped like a shoe???

Would you believe that, 99?
;)

Whatever happened to normal cell phones!  >:(

Whatever happened to normal cell phones!  >:(


There aren't any NORMAL cell phones these days.Everybody wants to be hip and with the in-crowd. ::)


Howard

I'll just stick to my "Entertainer" ring tone.I'd like to be hip different and with the in-crowd.
screw those normal ring tones. :P


Howard

There aren't any NORMAL cell phones these days.Everybody wants to be hip and with the in-crowd. ::)


Howard


Not me... I WANT A NORMAL CELLPHONE!  ::)  ;D

If I ever get a cell phone, I'll make it sound like a rotary phone.
Man, that will screw people up  :o
I live in Maine where I didn't hear a digital tone until I was 9 or 10. It took the phone company a long time to go touch-tone.

If I ever get a cell phone, I'll make it sound like a rotary phone.
Man, that will screw people up  :o
I live in Maine where I didn't hear a digital tone until I was 9 or 10. It took the phone company a long time to go touch-tone.


Sounds like a plan!  ;D

Not me... I WANT A NORMAL CELLPHONE!  ::)  ;D


a flip phone? ;D


Howard

a flip phone? ;D


Howard


Why not?  ::)  ;D

Why not?  ::)  ;D



just wondering. ;)


I would like a flip phone when my Father's contract runs out. :)


Howard

Are you going to get one that's shaped like a shoe???


;D LOL!

Sorry to say this Howard, but the 'entertainer' ring tone is one I find very irritating, even when I just think about it....I used to work for Vodafone advising customers how to use their handsets, we used to hear so many standard ringtones on a daily basis that it drove us all crazy after a while! That was back in the day when pre-pay mobiles were just starting out, they only had about 6 handsets on offer, some of which were analog. I wouldn't like to do that job now, there are so many phones available with such a high level of sophistication that it must be a nightmare to advise people on the finer points of how to use them. Nokias' predictive typing was bad enough when that first came out...

thing is nowadays everybody wants to be different,everybody wants to be in the in-crowd so these days you gotta have a different ring tone so it doesn't sound the same as the next person.


Howard

i LOVE my "just a girl" ringtone!  i have to go back now and check to see if they've added my anthem "1985" yet and that will be my new ringtone!

I just downloaded Def Leppard's Bringing On The Heartbreak as my ringtone.  I love it...plus when it rings I know it is my phone.

LOL>. you will hate me I 'am' the in crowd. My phone is colorfull.. plays a song when it rings (BIlly Talent) does e-mail, let's me sruf the web wherever i am. Takes pictures, Video's... and works as a remote control for most stuff that will take a remote control LOL.. it rules

I know it sounds so stupid but whenever I feel a little anxious,I pretendingly talk on my cell phone like someone just called me and take it on the bus so the people can hear my loud and annoying conversations. just try to make it sound realistic.Has anyone ever done that before? You can be honest. ;D


Howard

When people talk realy obnoxiously i pop out my cell phone and in a really fake voice go..

"YAH YAH DIDDUMS.. YAH YAH, I'LL BE HOME SOON BABY, OH I MAY BE 3 AND A HALF MINUETS LATE, YAH YAH.. OH HA HA HA HA HA HA (big fake laugh) OK DARLING CIAO!"

I had a phone with web access and predictive texting and about 20 million ringtones and stuff.  I only got it because, at the time, it was about the only reasonably priced one that was small enough to fit in my bag!

It drove me mad because the battery seemed to hold no charge so every time I went to use the phone it would ring twice and then cut me off.

Now I've got a bog standard el cheapo phone which does exactly what I want.  I've set the ring tone to ring (although it does croak like a frog when I get a text!  ;D )

I had that problem with one... but it was 'el cheapo crapiendas' the one i have now (if i had bought it from a shop ;)) would have been around 300 pounds, however i got it for 100. The battrey life is excellent, it stays on, on standby, for around 6 days.. and even if your useing it like constantly you get 3-4 days out of it.

Mine was a Siemens top job which is why I was very annoyed about it.  A friend had the same model and had exactly the same problem with it.  It just didn't seem to hold any charge.  To make matters worse, the display always said it was fully charged  ::)  My new phone goes for days and days switched on.  I rarely use it, it's an emergency contact number for nursery/school and family.

LOL you wanna get the one my father had. He didn't have to charge it for like two weeks at a time, and he used it for a lot of his business calls. It was about the size of a mini hi fi speaker but seriously would last forever. He eventually broke it after dropping it 20odd feet off the roof of a house

I know it sounds so stupid but whenever I feel a little anxious,I pretendingly talk on my cell phone like someone just called me and take it on the bus so the people can hear my loud and annoying conversations. just try to make it sound realistic.Has anyone ever done that before? You can be honest. ;D


Howard



Well, Howard you are in good company, well, if you consider Paris Hilton to be good company.  She was pretending to talk on her cell phone while be photographed by the paparazzi when it rang!  So you might want to turn you "entertainer" ring tone off when you are being so cool and "talking" on your phone!  ;)

I know it sounds so stupid but whenever I feel a little anxious,I pretendingly talk on my cell phone like someone just called me and take it on the bus so the people can hear my loud and annoying conversations. just try to make it sound realistic.Has anyone ever done that before? You can be honest. ;D


Howard

You're not alone, lots of people (especially teenagers) do this in the UK. What I'd find embarassing is that it's so easy to tell when people are faking these conversations- I listened (didn't have any choice) to a kid on a bus last night, it was sooo obvious that he wasn't talking to anyone, just trying to seem like someone wanted to speak to him, I thought "Hmm, that's even sadder than me being sat here, with a phone, not talking to someone".... a while ago, someone advertised a device in the UK that would jam all mobile signals within a 20 meter radius, I'd quite like to get one of those for those annoying journeys on public transport...

Well, Howard you are in good company, well, if you consider Paris Hilton to be good company.  She was pretending to talk on her cell phone while be photographed by the paparazzi when it rang!  So you might want to turn you "entertainer" ring tone off when you are being so cool and "talking" on your phone!   ;)


You know something? I think cell phone ettiquette these days has been flushed down the toilet.I can walk and talk on my cell pretendingly and no one would give a crap.just try to make it sound realistic by screaming,laughing or even crying.that'll make it believeable. ;D

Howard

Well,it seems like they might pass a law stating that you can use your cellular phone up in the sky when your on the plane.Great! now no one will get any rest. >:(


Howard

One thing I find annoying is how people think it's funny to have "Horror" sounds on their phones.

I'm sitting on the bus one day when all of a sudden a piercing scream ripped through the air. It was coming from this jerk's cellphone!
I'm guessing he had one of those sophisticated audioclip ringtones, so it sounded so real and so LOUD.
It scared the crap out of everyone on the bus!

I kind of think it's stupid myself. 

1.  It just seems like a pathetic attempt by the RIAA to get more people to buy their music, like you don't see it everywhere already.
2.  You could be thinking of what to say when the person answers, but the song could throw you off.

To NullandVoid:

That's even worse.  I hope there isn't a ringback tone for that!  Well, it might scare a few telemarketers away though... ;D

Howard:  I hope that screaming-phone guy won't be on any planes..

One thing I find annoying is how people think it's funny to have "Horror" sounds on their phones.

I'm sitting on the bus one day when all of a sudden a piercing scream ripped through the air. It was coming from this jerk's cellphone!
I'm guessing he had one of those sophisticated audioclip ringtones, so it sounded so real and so LOUD.
It scared the crap out of everyone on the bus!


It seems like everyone these days wants to be different,look and sound cool.That's the big thing around here. ::)


Howard

You know what's so weird? The other day I'm pretendingly to talk on my cell phone to whoever and all of a sudden it goes off. :o the people on the bus were staring at me like I wasn't talking to anyone.It's like I was faking it.But,who cares anymore.everyone is doing their own thing on the bus.reading,talking,listening to music,chatting or sleeping.


Howard

Does anyone still pretend to talk on their cell phone on the city bus? ;D



Howard

How does everyone feel about cell phone ettiquette these days?


Howard