Mumbai: BPL Mobile has launched India's first 'caller ring back tone' (CRBT) service. Over 1 million BPL Mobile subscribers in Mumbai can now benefit from BPL Mobile's SR 9.1 advanced network to decide what they will hear during interconnection instead of legacy electronic call connection ring tone tone.

Built and deployed using the ISUP — IN-based technology, the CRBT service is a unique network feature that replaces standard ring-back tones with any tone the subscriber chooses using a simple, multi-criteria customisation process. BPL Mobile subscribers (both prepaid and post-paid) can assign the ring back tone in the form of a normal ring tone, a celebrity voice, music clips, sound effects, jokes, news, personal voice or a combination of these.

Commenting on the new service, Krishna Angara, EVP-business operations, BPL Mobile said, "Traditionally, ringback tones were fixed by the service provider and consisted of uninteresting ringing or beeping sounds. Now, with CRBT we present our subscribers the newest trend in cell phone personalisation. With CRBT, we have once again demonstrated that BPL Mobile remains committed to providing the technology for next-generation services that attract new users and enhance existing consumer loyalty through a compelling competitive differentiation."

Exclusively provided by BPL Mobile, this value-added service brings a bouquet of features and benefits allowing the subscribers to pre-set a specific ring tone to be activated on a particular date or at a particular time. The subscriber can personalise the ring back tone for all callers or different callers, set a ringtone for a specific time period of the day and set different ring back tones for different days of the week and different dates.

The subscriber can conveniently activate this service and download ring back tones through an SMS / call to 666 or by calling the customer care at nominal monthly charge.

According to Subir Ghosh, COO, BPL Mobile, Mumbai, "Today, many in the industry are looking for a killer application. At BPL Mobile, we have invented a simple idea that utilises our 2.5G-enabled SR 9.1 network to deliver a broad range of exciting multimedia mobility services like CRBT that work on all handsets.

CRBT has great potential in this country with analysts forecasting that by 2007, 80 per cent of mobile users across India and Asia Pacific likely to opt for this service."

BPL Mobile also plans to market the CRBT service to its leading corporate clients as a unique and effective communication tool for advertising or targeted delivery of their messaging. Corporates availing of this service can preset the ring tone to customised jingles and other similar communiqué for the caller.

The CRBT launch along with the proposed launch of 'push-to-talk' service will ensure that BPL Mobile dominates the fun and entertainment space. Its existing basket of value added services in this space include MMS, GPRS, mobile games and send-a-song amongst others.

BPL Mobile has been rated as India's best mobile service in the latest nation wide survey conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC) across GSM and CDMA service providers, and amongst the most admired and trusted telecom brands in the country, in an AC Nielsen-ORG Marg survey carried in The Economic Times' Brand Equity.

BPL Mobile has over two million subscribers across 209 cities in India.