Ringback Comeback

Last year, there was a lot of talk about ringback tones. For those of you who don't know, ringbacks are songs that play on your phone for the person who is calling you. In other words, instead of your friend hearing that annoying ring, he might hear a Black Eyed Peas song instead.

I've always said that the amazing thing about ringbacks is that it's something that the consumer pays for that they'll never hear or use. Youth?

Oh well, at least it's pretty cheap. Only 99 cents per month plus $1.99 per ringback tone on Verizon and $1.49 per month plus $1.99 per ringback tone on T-Mobile. To date, these are the only top carriers to offer ringback tones, although other third tier carriers such as First Cellular of Southern Illinois, Eloqui Wireless and Panhandle Telephone Cooperative have jumped into the ringback fray. Just another way for smaller carriers to differentiate themselves versus the advertising budgets of the giants.

We hear Sprint Nextel will be the next major carrier to begin offering ringbacks.

According to Telephia, 10.7 % of downloads in November were ringbacks. Not bad, considering many of the giants haven't yet jumped on the ringback bandwagon.

T-Mobile offers one of the coolest features among the ringbackers. You can put the ringbacks on random so that your friend doesn't always hear the same song--much like your ipod. Subscribers can also designate a certain song for a certain time of day and have special songs for holidays and birthdays.

According to Verizon, one of the great things about ringbacks is that they work on all carriers, although some ringtone companies like MonsterTones have already licked this problem with Verizon's walled garden network. Verizon also states that ringbacks have been most popular among African Americans and Latinos.