SEOUL, South Korea-Indian wireless carrier Airtel has reached 1 million subscribers for its ringback tone service just five months after its July service launch, said WiderThan, which provides the service.
Airtel, which is the brand name for the service owned by Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., currently has 9.41 million customers, most of whom use mobile phones for voice service. As a differentiator for the ringback service, Airtel emphasized content from India’s movie industry, Bollywood, and sourced voice clips from many of India’s leading celebrities. WiderThan accommodated the ringback tones service in six languages-English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi and Kannad.
“The tremendous success of the ringback tone service in India has changed the way music is bought and sold in India,” said Atul Bindal, Group chief marketing officer and director of Airtel Mobile Services. “Going forward, Airtel clearly views much stronger levels of engagement evolving between the two partners-the Indian mobile and the music industry.”
WiderThan also has launched ringback tones services with other global carriers, including last week’s nationwide launch by T-Mobile USA Inc.
