Update: OnMobile informs us today that they've launched the pretones product with Tata Docomo. So now two VAS companies - OnMobile and One97 have deployed Pretones..who's next? OnMobile also shared some stats: the claim their RingBack Tone platform served 250 million song downloads in 2009, up 55 percent year on year; they handle 34 million music search requests from 6.3 million unique users every month, with a song downloaded every eight seconds. Their RBT platform is present across six countries with 12 deployments. P.s.: I don't quite like the phrase "Reverse-Ringback Tone"...quite like a double negative. "Pretones" is shorter, snappier, and since we're talking about the mobile business, easier to text :) Original Story (April 9th 2010): Tata Docomo has launched Music based Pretones for post-paid and pre-paid subscribers; Pretones allow callers to listen to songs of their choice when calling anyone. Though Docomo claims this is the first "reverse ring-back tone" service in India, we beg to differ: Idea cellular has launched content based pretones a week and a half ago, and the bragging rights go to them. This does appear to be the first implementation of music on a pretone, though. The service is being charged at a subscription rate of Rs. 15 for 30 days, Rs. 10 per song download activation, and 2 paise per second for accessing the service, and users can subscribe by dialing 543217. As a consumer, I would prefer to have a playlist instead of just a single song every time. Tata Docomo allows…
