Now, ringtone fun cards from Hutch

With the growth of the multimedia mobile handset market in the country, the demand for ringtones and caller tunes has created an entirely separate and booming value-added services market for the mobile service providers who earn a significant part of their revenue from them.

Yesterday, Hutchison Essar, one of the leading mobile services providers in the country, announced a country-wide launch of its prepaid "Fun Cards", which are scratch cards with predefined caller tunes and ringtones.

Talking to Business Standard on the occasion of the launch of the Fun Cards, Rohit Adya, chief operating officer, UP (West) telecom circle, said the fun cards were a completely new idea as till date, such content could only be accessed by going through a cumbersome IVRS system or by sending multiple SMSs to get the desired ringtone.

He added that it was the first time that any company had thought of bringing out a prepaid card for its value-added services.

He said the fun cards were currently available in three affordable denominations "� Rs 20, Rs 40 & Rs 45 for a large selection of ringtones and caller tunes.

According to Adya, the most important aspect of this product is that it doesn't require any short codes or access to the websites.

Instead, the subscriber can get multiple choices of differentiated and updated content at the retailer's shop itself, making it easily accessible even to rural subscribers who did not understand technical jargons.

He said Hutch was the first company to have launched Bhojpuri and Garhwali folk songs as ringtones and caller tunes for rural subscribers. He added that incorporating Braj folk songs was next on the cards.