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Ring-Back Tones Offered In Korea And Soon Japan
NTT DoCoMo is launching a ring-back tone service in which the customer customizes the sounds a caller hears between the time when they dial the subscriber's number, and the time the subscriber picks up. The tones are MP3 quality, and replace the standard "brrr-brrr". The iMode Melody Call service will launch in September with 3000 available tunes. DoCoMo's service 16 months after the COLORing service by SK Telecom launched in April 2002. Prices are a couple of dollars for monthly subscription and about a buck each time you add a different tune. Some analysts have speculated that calling a friend and hearing Frank Sinatra instead of standard ring sounds is annoying. Those analysts should have a chat with the 7 Million customers at SK Telecom who are spending enough money on the service that it surpassed standard Ringtone revenues just eight months after launch. SKT now has over 61,000 tunes from which to choose. Korea's KTF and LG Telecom also offer Ring-back services, launched later in 2002. Okay, I'm biased because I consult for SK Telecom, but I'm also sick and tired of seeing DoCoMo get all the credit just because the Korean firms lack Global PR. PS: Don't be surprised if Ring-Back tones show up around the world quite quickly.
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what vendors do offer the underlying technologies
derek, what vendors apart from nms and comverse are offering the underlying technologies? --chris
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carriers
Well, the two you mention, and I know that the Korean Carriers are marketing their related IP, and Lucent is in the mix. I would expect Nortel to get in the game at some point, but perhaps in partnership with a partner.
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any move of two rivals, KDDI and Vodafone?
derek, Is there any sign of rivals launching same service?
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Vendors for MRBT
Spire Technologies Inc, SICAP, Comverse, NMS, WiderThan and Locus Networks are all technology owners/developers for this. Ericsson have launched it as Personal Greeting Service re badging one of the above. Siemens also re sell it.
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Vendors
Can I have the vendors websites? Which one/s are the most aggressive in marketing and good in implementing? How long is the implementation time? Thanks
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Who implements COLORing service by SK Telecom?
derek, like to find out which vendor actually implements COLORing RBT srv in SK? Widerthan or NMS? Have read articles and news report on SK telecom cases, and apparently both vendors claim they launch RBT service in SK? Confusing and misleading? Can share on insights on this topic?
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Vendor for RBT
Trious of Korea also claims having RBT solution. Chk out their website at www.trious.com.
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How RBT works?
Could you please give me a rough idea/description about how ring back tone service works for widerthan.com. Please it is a bit necessary. Atleast provide me the necessary links where I can get the relevant information. Rgds, Chetan.
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cost of the service
do you know how much it cost to suscribr to this service in hong kong and in UK?
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IP Solution for RBT
What will be the requirement in implementing IP solution for the RBT? Will there be interface issue with the IN (for prepaid) or other system?
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Ringback OTne
SK Telecom first launched RBT in 2002 and initially they had technology providers in Korea that became the inhouse to develop and deploy. NMS, Widerthan, Hurim and Mobianet are the technology companies that assited SK Telcom. Once RBT was successful these technology companies used the IP to deploy RBT around the world
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