AIS ringtones come with video and music
Suvit, right, says the video ringtones are an example of how services don’t need to wait for 3G. He sees them as a breakthrough in services.
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The country's largest cell-phone operator, Advanced Info Service (AIS), yesterday announced the launch of a video ringtone service. Subscribers will now be able to see a video with music on incoming calls.
From next Thursday, the company will become the first mobile operator to offer the system in the local market where 3G, or third-generation mobile technology, is not yet available."This is an example of how services don't need to wait for 3G. From my perspective, the video ringtone is a breakthrough in services," said Suvit Arayawilaipong, vice president for wireless development at AIS. AIS expects 50,000 of its nearly 17 million subscribers to download the video ringtones within the first three months. However, citing the move from monotone to polyphonic and then to truetone, Suvit said video ringtones could become the most popular downloads within the next three to four years. Only AIS users who have a Symbian handset can access the video ringtone service at this stage. There are about one million mobile phones running on the Symbian operating system in the Thai market. Pongpat Woraratanadharm, president of 125 Telecom, the company which has developed the video ringtone application, said an agreement with AIS prohibited the firm from offering a similar service with other operators for one month. To obtain a video ringtone, mobile phone users will have to go to the AIS MobileLife WAP (wireless application protocol) portal to download their first video ringtone, which is bundled with an application that will enable the phone to run it. Once users have the initial application that comes with the first downloaded video clip, they can arrange their own video clips to play during an incoming call without the need to pay for more video clips from AIS. Users can forward the video clips they have bought from the WAP portal to others, with no charge for the content. "Later we will limit the forwarding, but at this stage we want an open market to promote the new services so they become widely known among the public," said Pongpat. There are 60 video ringtones now offered at the site provided by content partners such as Red Beat, Warner Music, Musiconline, and BECi. The tariff is Bt40 for each video ringtone, which runs for about 12-15 seconds. Among the videos on offer are a Hello Kitty-playing-soccer clip, a teaser from the "Da Vinci Code" movie, and local celebrities. Suvit said SMS remained the most popular non-voice service, followed by calling melodies, which are expected to produce Bt1.8 billion in revenue for the firm this year, and the WAP portal services where the main income is from GPRS (general packet radio services) charges. Pichaya Changsorn, The Nation
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