

A thing that never was: ringback tones - justnearme
http://www.rioleo.org/the-thing-that-never-was-ringback-tones.php

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click170
I remember ringbacks something like this;

One day several years ago I noticed the number of calls I was getting was
going down. Then one day a friend texted me asking what was wrong with my
phone, I asked what he meant and he said it had stopped ringing when ever he
called me and all it did was play music now. He was rather confused, and I was
just as confused but skeptical too, I requested no change in service. I asked
him to come over to demonstrate and sure enough there was a song that would
play whenever someone called me. I figure most people thought that meant some
kind of error and hung up, most of the time before it hit my phone.

I called my carrier and angrily complained and the poor woman tried to pass
this off as a service, but I was having none of it. I demanded that they
disable it immediately and I apologized to friends and family who were
confused by it. Nearly switched carriers over it as well, this is preposterous
IMO and was executed with very little forethought.

Shortly afterwards, ringbacks disappeared entirely and I was all the happier
for it. I get the sense there are multiple lessons to take from that anecdote.

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josh2600
Technically speaking, it's only on SS7 networks where this is a problem to
implement. It's basically just playing an arbitrary media file, which is
trivial in VoIP.

The interesting thing is that the original SS7 code did not have an arbitrary
case programmed for the ring back tone; that is to say the original network
infrastructure did not support on-demand changes to ring backs or to pull an
arbitrary media file at the time of call. The solution was a box
intermediating the call to stream musical media before connecting to the
actual intended voice call media.

Telecom, why do stuff in softwhere when you can just add another box?

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MBCook
If I were designing that system that's what I would have done.

I can't think of an actual _need_ for that ability, only the fact it could be
used for novelty, abused to annoy people, or just flat out cause problems
(i.e. what if my ringback tone is a busy signal?)

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pmorici
It's used as a cheap way to implement a school closing hotline where people
all call to receive the same message.

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MBCook
You came up with something, I'm impressed. I don't think that would be the
best way to implement that but it's a sane idea and one more than I had.

Edit: after reading more in the thread, I see you actually ENCOUNTERED this.
Why do it this way? Would it somehow be cheaper because you don't have to
'answer' the calls and hold the lines open?

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startledmarmot
It really boils down to money. When the call connects, _somebody_ gets
charged. Perhaps both of you do -- you lose a minute on your cellphone bill,
and the school gets charged a minute for the phone call.

Putting the school notice in the RBT space eliminates this charge and
essentially makes the entire transaction "free."

Lots of big companies use this for the first step in their automated
attendants. Since DTMF (phone number signals) are transmitted during the
ringback tone (but voice is not), they can put the first step of their
attendant in the RBT space. This saves them the money if you never get any
further, or decide to hang up soon after.

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josh2600
The settlement agreements for calls are pretty straightforward (Sending party
pays). Consumers are also billed for service, but behind the scenes there's a
wholesale market where traffic imbalances are valuable (this is also a core
issue with Net Neutrality; consider that at peak Netflix is 35% of global
bandwidth which is mostly delivered by one provider: cogent).

There's a whole different discussion around signaling and abusing both headers
and early media transfers to avoid billing. It's still very largely the wild
west, IMHO.

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startledmarmot
Truthfully, regarding call connect charges, ringback, per-minute fees, etc...
I don't think many folks think much about the fact that a lot of the business
and billing decisions driving modern telecom policy are still rooted in the
same thought patterns they were in the 1950s. It drives the net neutrality
debates, it drives shareholder profit expectations, everything.

And I agree - it's absolutely the wild west. After 70 years of doing it one
way, we're starting to see a tipping point of new realtime infrastructures and
technologies. Unfortunately, I think it's likely to become even more wild as
the "silo-ification of communication" trend continues. Boo.

Don't get me started on credit card processing fees. ;)

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pmorici
I found out about ring-back tones by accident when I was trying to use Twilio
to write an app to call an automated snow closing hotline record the message
and then tweet if there was a closing. When ever I called with twilio the call
_always_ failed and after contacting twilio support and they couldn't figure
out what was going on either I just sort of put it on the back burner for a
while. Then the next winter season rolled around again and a bunch of co-
workers were complaining about how they couldn't call the snow closing hotline
from their Google Voice enabled phones. Someone who worked with the people who
had implemented the system went to ask how it worked and discovered it used a
ring-back tone to play the message. At this point I realized why Twilio always
thought the call failed since you can't start scripting a call in Twilio until
it is actually answered.

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ian0
I live in Indonesia and I can vouch that ring-back-tones are not just alive
but also remain very profitable.

When you call a person with a RBT there is first a message saying "If you want
this tone for 10cents please press 7", then the music starts, usually the
latest chart-song.

Needless to say it has a solid customer base made up mostly of teens, but also
of corporates with a company jingo as the RBT (I kid you not).

Im not sure if the big chat apps (will dominate VoiP) have this function built
in yet but Id imagine they will at some stage, a nice VAS if you can charge
for it..

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beilabs
I'm pretty sure this was incredibly popular in China around 2005. Pick your
favourite artists song and pay for it with existing phone credit. Then force
your family and friends to listen each time they call...

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startledmarmot
The U.S. market for straight ringback tones was really hampered by lack of
competent marketing, poor (and as josh2600 said: annoyingly over-complicated,
Telecom-mentality driven) implementation, and a complete lack of inter-carrier
cooperation in the VAS space. Too bad - like Indonesia, it's quite huge in
Latin America and many other parts of the world.

Ring Plus is still working with that technology - but now does a lot with
_reverse_ ringback tones; rbts based on what you want/prefer to hear, not what
the person you're calling wants you to hear. It's now a mobile phone MVNO in
the U.S using reverse RBTs to deliver a Spotify/Rdio/Pandora-style radio feed
that goes towards subsidizing or eliminating your phone bill.

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melloclello
This was huge in New Zealand for a while in the mid 2000s - I have no idea how
you'd sign up for it nowadays, but sometimes I'll call somebody and still hear
a tinny rendition of I Believe In A Thing Called Love before they pick up.

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vitd
Yeah, if I called someone and heard an ad, I would _never ever_ call that
person again. I don't need anymore ads in my life, thanks.

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galuggus
these are huge in China

