Ringback tones (RBT) were introduced to the market in 2003/2004. Ringback tones are clips of songs played for callers while they are waiting for their friends or colleagues to answer the phone.  Different songs or playlists can be assigned to different users, turning boring waiting time into an entertaining experience.  After tremendous success in Asian markets, RBTs started to spread to other regions of the world, such as Europe and North America. The dynamic and growing economies in places such as China, India and Indonesia are reflected in those nations’ rapid adoption of RBTs.
Leading mobile industry analysts forecast that global RBT demand will continue to show strong growth over the next few years, with some analysts predicting that revenues generated by RBTs will surpass traditional ringtone proceeds.



Figure 1: Rapid Growth Anticipated for Global RBT Annual Revenues 2006-2010

Fun Dial is the Comverse Ringback Tone Platform.  As the worldwide RBT market leader with more than 50 live Fun Dial platforms around the globe, Comverse is committed to providing innovative new solutions that can expand the reach and profitability of RBTs for our customers, allowing them to generate substantial additional revenues from the service in the future.  
An innovative addition to the traditional Fun Dial RBT service, Fun Broker allows for an operator-managed ecosystem, where third party content vendors can promote and distribute their content, thus enriching the diversity and reach of content available.   

Third Party Content Providers Drive the Content Market

Mobile operators launch many new services and applications each year, in constant pursuit of new sources of revenue and new ways to increase their subscribers’ loyalty.
After launching these applications, however, operators can find it challenging to maintain marketing focus on each specific service over the long-term.  As a result, operators sometimes face stagnation of penetration and usage of a particular service.
Increasingly, players in the content value chain, such as content aggregators and music labels, are assuming responsibility for marketing services directly to their users, and sharing in the revenues they generate.
The shift to this off-portal ecosystem is proving to be a successful model for operators and third party content players alike.  Operators benefit from the content providers’ large and content-focused marketing budgets. 

In addition, through the use of third party channels, more and different kinds of users are exposed to the service.  For example, many content-savvy youth are much more likely to visit youth-oriented mobile music sites than they are to visit their carrier’s on-deck portal.  
Until now, because RBTs are an “in-network” service that must be housed within the carrier’s network, the off-portal model has not been available for RBTs.  With Fun Broker, Comverse has defined an innovative new technology, which, for the first time, allows third party content vendors to connect into the carrier-operated RBT ecosystem. 

Fun Broker Product Overview

The Fun Broker product is a country-based system that enables all content players from a given country to sell RBTs via their own media hubs (Web, TV, newspapers, etc.) to all mobile subscribers — regardless of mobile operator (provided that the user’s mobile operator has a compatible RBT platform).
Fun Broker’s target audience includes new users and the many mobile users who are already active content aggregators or music label customers. They are content-savvy, know the aggregator brands, and many have already established content consumption habits for ringtones and full track downloads, which could easily be extended to include RBTs.

Securing Worldwide Long-Term Success for RBTs

Fun Broker seeks to enhance global long-term success for RBTs by increasing penetration and usage among end-users by:

• Providing an alternative to augment operators’ limited marketing investment resources
• Dramatically increasesing awareness of RBTs and providing more outlets for access to these RBTs.
  

• Mobile Subscriber Benefits: Fun Broker leverages existing consumer behavior, making the RBT discovery and purchase experience similar to that of other services. No matter who their mobile operator is (assuming that their mobile operator has an RBT offering), users can purchase RBTs the same way they download ringtones and wallpapers.
• Operator Benefits: Fun Broker gives off-deck players in the content value chain an incentive to promote RBTs. This can significantly increase operator RBT revenues while decreasing operator marketing expenses.
  
• Content Player Benefits: Fun Broker can give content providers a clear and simple way to load and manage content. Content is controlled by the content provider independently and dynamically in a way that minimizes time to market. Content providers can now advertise RBTs using all of the forms of media that they already use for other content. They can choose from a variety of user interfaces (SMS, Web, WAP or IVR) depending on regional/national mobile users’ existing purchasing behaviors).

Fun Broker Product Functionality

Purchase: Mobile users can purchase RBTs via any convenient user interfaces:

•  SMS: Users can send code “XXX” to “YYYY” to receive the item they want. First-time purchasers are registered to the RBT service automatically.
•    Web: Mobile subscribers can enter a content provider website, browse the RBT catalog, or search for specific items (per artist, song or category name). When they locate the content they want to buy, they can listen to a preview of the song, log in to the site and download their RBT directly from the website.
•    IVR: Content providers can advertise an IVR number that leads to their RBT tree. There, the user can browse, listen to a few seconds of each content item, and download the desired item.
•    WAP: The user can use his WAP browser to select songs directly from his handset.

Profile Management: Once a mobile subscriber has purchased a RBT off-deck, three levels of functionality can be defined according to market maturity and existing consumer behaviors:

• Default Level for First Purchase: The purchased item automatically becomes the user’s default RBT.
• Basic Level: The purchased item is automatically stored in the user’s playlist. Items in the playlist are heard randomly by all callers.
• Advanced Level: The purchased item is automatically stored in the user’s playlist and he/she decides what item to assign when and to whom. Within the advanced level there are two profile management sub-levels:
  • On-deck Profile Management: Redirect to operator
  • Off-deck Profile Management: Requires full API integration by the content provider to the Fun Broker Platform.

Summary

Fun Broker provides a comprehensive solution that opens RBT service to the off-deck content market, regardless of platform vendors. It is uniquely designed for supplying a friendly, easy-to-use, dynamic and efficient service to content providers and operators.
By doing so, it can increase mobile subscriber awareness of RBTs and generate substantial additional revenues for both operators and content providers, with more RBT users and more RBT downloads per user.

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