Personalized ringback tone

Personalized ringback tone
In recent years "personalized" ringback tones become known in the following alternative names, such as Caller Ring Back Tones (CRBT). Personalized ringback tones have become globally popular.[citation needed] With this feature, callers will hear an audio selection applied to the telephone line that has been previously determined by the called party. Audio selections can include music, messages, greetings and special effects like mixing. Equipment is installed in the telephone network to enable replacement of the standard ringback tone with a personalized audio selection. This ensures that the handset equipment is not burdened with media storage and playback. The application of the personalized audio selections is accomplished with a subscriber account that can be modified through WWW, WAP, SMS, USSD or Voice User Interfaces, as well as by customer care personnel.
Sleevi - US Patent No. 4,811,380, Gregorek - US Patent No. 5,321,740, and Stietzel - US Patent No. 20010051517 were the first to invent early versions of Ring Back Tones but CRBTs weren't implemented until Seelig's RBT patented filed in 2001 - US Patent No. 7,006,608. The first functional prototype for RBT replacement as we know them today was created by PromoTel, a US company using Karl Seelig's RBT technology in August 2001, published in an Advertisment in the Economist Magazine 2001 and as an Article in the OC Register.
Witcom also developed CRBT IP server for mass service as well. In March 2004, Vodafone D2 was the first European operator to launch the Ringback Tone service. Vodafone used the European Computer Telecoms (ECT) solution. RingPlus and Promotel were the first to use RBT Ads to pay for free phone calls in the US.
Today various companies supply personalized ringback equipment for mobile phone and landline telephone companies. Most mobile operators offer RBT services to their customers. Most global communication companies now have ringback equipment provided by VAS vendors like RealNetworks, Huawei,Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse Technology, Ericsson, Nortel, and OnMobile.
The majority of mobile operators have now launched the RBT service to their customers. The most notable being Vodafone where it is live in 18 of Vodafone’s markets. [LogicaCMG] was the system integration and prime contractor for most Vodafone deployments using the MyCaller RBT solution from [NMS Communications]. NMS Communications now renamed Livewire Mobile has now divesified into offering a complete portfolio of music services including full track music download, managed store fronts and client based applications.
The use of such nonstandard telephony signals can cause problems with automatic dialing equipment such as faxes and modems, however lines intended to receive such data telephone calls normally have the proper ringback tone. In addition, a caller may define specific users to whom the personalized content will be played. Other callers will hear the "traditional" ringback tone