Vodafone selects India’s OnMobile for ring back tones in emerging markets

Vodafone announces that it will extend its popular ring back tone service to customers in emerging markets, outside of India, after striking a new deal with India’s OnMobile, a leading provider of value added services.

Today’s announcement between Vodafone Group and OnMobile forms a separate agreement to an existing successful partnership Vodafone’s Indian operation has with OnMobile. Currently, millions of Vodafone customers in India use the ring back tone service, which will be rolled out across Vodafone’s other emerging markets from the Spring.

Ring back tones are widely used, particularly in Asia, where they make up a large proportion of business in the non-downloadable content market. Instead of listening to a traditional dial tone when calling someone, ring back tones let the caller listen to a song or other audio clip chosen by the owner of the mobile device whose number was dialled.

Bobby Rao, Internet Services Marketing Director, Vodafone, said: “Anyone with a mobile phone can use ring back tones. They can be personalised for individual callers and contain music, greetings, jokes as well as special audio effects. Vodafone was one of the first operators to introduce ring back tones and through this deal, we will now be able offer customers in Africa, the rest of Asia and central Europe an affordable way to personalise their phones.”

About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile telecommunications company, with equity interests in 27 countries and Partner Markets in more than 40 countries. As of 31 December 2008, Vodafone had approximately 289 million proportionate customers worldwide. For further information, please visit www.vodafone.com.