Ringback tones outselling ring tones German operators are making more money from ringback tones than they are from ring tones, despite only having 2.3 per cent signed up. Real Networks, who are busy flogging ringback tone servers, reckon that Vodafone and T-Mobile made €26m selling ring tones in Germany last year, compared to €34m from ringback tones, and that …
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I have worked for ov er a year with somebody who has "Yabadaba %$Q£"%$!£$% do" [Barney Rubble ?] as his RBT. the first time it is not funny, the second time, annoying the third hateful the 4975th time is.....
hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them.......
I don't like the sound of this, I'm a grumpy fucker as it is. God knows what I'd be like after listening to whatever annoying tune is doing the rounds every time I ring someone up.
I can feel my blood pressure rising already...
On second thoughts...... maybe I can have one done by Martin Freeman that goes...
"You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........You're a cock,........"
....and I have had nothing but good comments from people - except my Grandmother who, despite several explanations, simply couldn't get her head around the idea and branded it 'weird'....
I mean, who in their right mind WOULDN'T want to hear the Foo Fighters every time you call someone?!
"But Real reckons the problem isn't that people don't like Ring Back Tones, only that they have no idea what they are."
And yet people say that being ignorant is bad, here's an example of ignorance actually providing a significant benefit. It's just too bad that the beneficiaries are ignorant of the benefit, though.
A couple of my German mates have had these for a few years now, and I've ALWAYS wanted one. Though it IS confusing the first time you call someone and you hear something foreign in the ringing.
Paris, because she likes something foreign in her... no, actually, I won't.
P.S.Piloti, that's a problem with The Person not The Device... so just kill them. That's probably completely fine.
I've got a friend who works for T-mobile and called his mobile a couple of months ago and got one of these stupid f***ing ring tones, and promptly hung up in total annoyance at it. Saw him a couple of days later (well, I wasn't going to call him, was I?!) and asked what the hell it was and he said that all employees were required to have them on their work mobiles, and apologised for the terrible racket.
As Piloti, these ring back tones are truly horrendous to listen to and blooming awful if you are trying to make a call in a noisy environment. Just hang up if you hear one.
Didn't know of the term "Ring back tones" but find that I've had the ability to inflict them on people via my Truphone account for some time.
As to playing different tones to different people, well, I find Advanced Call Manager allows me to block anyone with a witheld number - or I can send them to voice mail hell or wherever, whilst my friends can still get through.
Regards
Neil
After some playing with them when I worked for Three, I settled on the music from 2001 (sorry can't remember it's name. Goes beeeeeeeep, beeeep, badam, dom, dom, dom...)
Anyway, the deal with these is that the phone rings once normally, then switches to the music. So people would hear "ring" then "beeeeep" assume the call had dropped/gone wrong and call someone else.
Lo and behold my quotient of annoying calls from people who didn't know me but wanted to ask pointless questions dropped hugely. I'd still get the first ring while the phone was in my pocket, but if I wasn't too quick on the draw, they went away.
I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
It's the next best thing to the people who are asking for a "f%£$ off" "ring tone" (as I think 3 were calling them then.)
One of my friends had one of these on her phone a few years back. I don't see the appeal to be honest. What's the point of paying for something that you're never going to hear (unless you ring yourself) and potentially annoys the person calling?
I remember that my friend had picked some song that was in the chart at that moment in time. Since most music in the charts these days is a load of bollox, you can guess it was going to be pretty shit. Even worse, it could be this years X-Craptor winning song!
Oh really hope that people in this country don't every find out that these things exist. Because most 10-18yos will have them.... Just thank god they weren't popular when the Crazy Frog was in full swing... or you'd here it when someone's phone rings AND when you're ringing someone!
One of his blogs mentioned that he tried one of these and didn't realise it had worked until a colleague asked about his unprofessional selection.
Surely there should be some sort of requirement for a common tone for engaged, busy and ringing? Maybe I'm just turning into an old fart but the idea of confusing people just for the sake of it seems like a bad idea.
Whenever I rang that person I thought I had been put straight through to there 'funky' answerphone message and would hang up.
This kept happening until one day they accused me of giving them 'Pikey ring backs' (ring once/twice, hang up and wait for return call - very popular with low credit PAYG users). Of course I responded with 'No I don't, you keep sending me to voice mail'.. they then explained the service but I would not have known that it was called 'Ringback tones'.
Very poor naming, implies that it relates to another telephoney type service as already mentioned by someone else..
That explains a couple of people I've hung up on recently. Never heard of them before.
Much as I'd prefer something more interesting than <ring><ring> the problem is that it's standardised and I don't have to think about it, I know it means the phone is ringing on the other end.
If you try to make me think when I shouldn't have to (i.e. "does this mean it's ringing, or have I dialled wrong"), then tough, I'm not wasting my time calling you. Stop making my life more complex, I'm perfectly capable of screwing it up without any help.
It has been toted as "cool!" since at least 2007, however I've had only two mobiles playing these "ringback" tones on me. It was one of those corny pop-songs (and I'd like to note that it was the SAME frickin' song for both numbers!) which annoyed me to hell. I use the dialling tones to avoid getting sent to voicemail, and people using these screw up my count!
Also, it seems that these "ringback tones" (marketing over here calls 'em "while you answer tones") are all "choose from these tones", and you can't put up your own. Sad, as I'd like the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" ringback tone. Though I think that would be better to have as my actual ringtone.
... that goes
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
"Text me and I'll call you back if *I* think it's important"...
There was a time when mobile calls didn't use any "airtime" when the phone was ringing, because the ringtone was actually built into the callers phone, so there wasn't any need to waste bandwidth sending that sound over the air to the phone, and technically, you weren't supposed to be billed until the caller answered the phone.
The problem was that the ringtone used in the UK is not the same as the ringtone used in Europe and the US, and the ringtone used in the UK wasn't part of the cell-phones firmware, so the ringing sound that you heard when you called from your cellphone was actually sent over the air from the callees provider.
So it seems that UK mobile providers have been using "ring back tones" from day one, you just didn't get to choose which tone they used for calls to your number!
I hate ring-back tones. I can never really tell what they are supposed to be, anyway, because of horrible distortion, either too loud or just a crappy recording.
Definitely not worth the money people spend. I have told more than one friend to not assign one to me.
Paris, not worth the money.
One more reason that I'll use my Nokia 5185 until they pry it out ^W^W^W^H phone company refuses to let me use it anymore.
Honestly ... Phone makes "ring" noise, answer it. If you are not in the mood to answer your phone, why is it on? Everything else is cruft. And bloody annoying to everyone else in attendance, to boot. It's NOT "cool", it's glam (or bling, or whatever) ... glitter that says nothing more than "look at me, I'm a sad loser who thinks I'm cool!"
And then there are the truly sad idiots who use their "speaker phone" cell phones in public ... do they REALLY think that sharing their personal business in public makes them look cool? In reality, it demonstrates to the world at large that they (and the people at the other end) have nothing of value to contribute ... Good candidates for chlorination of the gene pool, all of 'em.
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