Ringback Tones - huh?

So just what are Ringback Tones? In simple terms, when you call someone you usually will hear a beep letting you know that you have been connected and the phone is ringing - this is the ringback tone.

What are Ringback Tones? Technically, a ringback tone is "an intermittent audible indication to the calling party that a dialed telephone number is ringing." So what this is saying is that when you call someone you usually will hear a beep letting you know that you have been connected and the phone is ringing.

A more technical explanation is that your ringback tone is a status indication to your caller that your line is available (ie., in service and not busy). Network connections through the telephony networks between the caller and the callee's audio devices are either made, or will be available to be connected, and the phone call will complete. (that is, if the call is picked up - either by an answering service or a person)

Once the receiving party has either answered your call, or you call was picked up by an answering machine or network voice service, the ringback tone stops. (awwww). The actual sound of a ringback tone will depend on your country and/or carrier.

The actual sound of a ringback tone will depend on your country and/or carrier. Again, to get technical, in North America (United States and Canada), which are within the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), the standard PSTN ringback tone is generated by summing a 440-Hz tone with a 480-Hz tone and applying these to the telephone line in a two-second on and four-second off rhythm.

The interference due to the difference in frequency between the two tones causes a 40-Hz beat, and the tone combination produces the common warbling "ring ... ring ... ring" sound. The ringback tone may be generated by the switch serving either the called party or the calling party, but it is not generated by the called telephone instrument or PBX. Usually the ringback tone starts and stops at the same rate as the ringing tone of the called telephone, but generally is out of phase, i.e., one plays while the other is silent.

Finally we get to the fun part - rather than the standard 'ring ring' tone we just talked about above, cellphone carriers have made it possible to personalize the ringbacks that your cellphone service will play when a caller is waiting for you or your machine to pickup. A huge selection of current (as well as classic) music and audio clips are available for selection on your cellphone to play as the ringback tone. Customizing your ringback tones in this manner is available through subscription services with your particular carrier, and is generally billed as an additional charge per tone selected.

You can customize the tone played depending on the caller - it is possible to select up to 100 or so active ringback tones at any given time, each programmed so that different callers hear different tones/songs/clips, or programmed so that different tones will play dependent on the time of day.

Great, now we're on the same page about what these things are, so I'm going to think hard about what my next fun post about ringback tones will be!

My Ringback Tones

I love ringback tones. I love them enough that I think a blog about my ringback tones is totally warranted. I think this is just the coolest invention (after ringtones of course) ever. It's like a retro revival of the on-hold elevator music of the 80's. You get the 'please wait' music, but you're not really on hold. Ringback tones while the phone is ringing ... ingenious!!

The only drawback is that the cellphone carriers control the ringback tones. No downloading directly to your phone like my ringtone collection. Or heaven forbid, make your own mix and upload. Well, that must be just around the corner if it's not already available. (note to self: go see if I can do this with my ringback tones yet).

Next post ... my current 'ringback tone playlist' - complete with my caller list that I customize my tones for. I think it's important to know who's calling me when I talk about the ringback tone that I've set up for my peeps.