Free Calls With Advertising Ring-Back Tones

We’ve been covering PromoTel’s intent to patent ringbacks and ringback ads for a while now… and it appears that the companies second patent application — which covers the software component of the ring-back signal with any type of music or message — has gained allowability from the US Patent Office.
Aside from the fact this seems to cover selling music ringback tones to people, “PromoTel estimates that replacing music content with advertisements would generate close to USD$14 billion in revenue for major telecoms like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint”. PromoTel has been experimenting with 7-second ads to go in the slots… To reiterate, I think this is a good idea as long as there is some value given to the user. The article starts off suggesting that people who sign up for the service will be able to use their mobile free of charge, but $14 billion isn’t going to cover that so the most they can hope for is slightly cheaper calls, or some other benefit. Still, the article does say: “The company will now move forward with plans for a January 2006 field test allowing select customers in target markets to make free, unlimited local and nationwide calls.”
Of course, the issue is not how many people you call, but how many call you… so it’s not a direct relationship between ringback ads and personal phone use. I wonder how long it will be before someone offers a service where the person making the call gets to decide what they want to hear, and recieve any benefits from that… (via Ringtonia)
Related stories:
–Ring-back Tones to Become Advertising Channel
–Hong Kong ‘ring-ring’: An ad in every call
–Ads on your mobile: Believe it or not, you may welcome them