Technology and Gadgets

Ringback tones have been available from cellphone companies for quite a few years, but they are not quite as ubiquitous as ringtones. In order to help you understand what these things are, I thought I’d give you a short description, and then my top 5 list of why I think ringback tones are great.

First, what is a ringback? Actually, everyone with a cellphone already has a standard ringtone and a standard ringback tone. The ringtone is what the person being called hears from their cellphone when someone is calling them. If your cellphone is ringing then you are hearing your ringtone. These have been customizable for ages. You can download ringtones and customize what you hear when certain people call you. The ringback tone that everyone is already familiar with is actually played from the cell carriers network – when you are calling someone and waiting for them to pickup, your cellphone will make a ‘ring ring’ sound in your earpiece. This tone was never customizable before, but now that phone companies have introduced downloadable ringback tones, you can change this tone on your phone. That means that whenever someone calls you and are waiting for you to pick up the phone, they will hear your ringback tone instead of the boring old ‘ring ring’.

Ok, now that I’ve explained ringbacks, let me tell you why I think they are so great, and why you should get one or two to try out.
First, they are cool and add a customizable personality to your phone that entertains your friends and family every time they call you. You can choose from just about any music genre, top hits or classic songs, or even audio clips like celebrity voices or comedy clips.

Second, you can have more than one ringback tone, and you can set different tones to play when individual numbers call you, or when a number from a particular group calls you. You can even set your ringback tone to change during different times of the day.
Third, the majority of cell companies give you a feature called Jukebox, which lets you shuffle your ringbacks. This lets you play your ringbacks for people, but won’t force them to listen to the same one every time they call.

Forth, ringbacks are cheap. For example, the standard price for Verizon ringback tones is $1.99 each, and that lets you use the ringback tone for a year. In addition to the cost of the individual ringback tones, you will have to pay a monthly ringback tone service fee, which enables the service for your cellphone line.
Fifth, if you have a business line, you can completely customize your ringback tone(s) to advertise your services or specials. You can also program your ringback tones to give customers information about your business while they are waiting for someone to answer their call.

Hopefully this has given you some insight about what ringback tones are, and maybe given you some incentive to try them out. Just about all the major cell carriers will let you download ringbacks, from Verizon ringback tones, to AT&T, to T-Mobile, anyone with a cellphone can take advantage of the coolness that ringbacks offer.