PRESS RELEASE - Onfone Launches Pre-Pay Ringtone Service

Added: (Mon Dec 11 2000)

Pressbox (Press Release) - PRESS RELEASE - Onfone Launches Pre-Pay Ringtone Service

Onfone Limited, the mobile information services business targeting teens and
students has launched a pre-pay downloadable ringtone service for mobile
phones.

Registered users pre-pay £5:00 via secure payments partner Worldpay,
enabling 10 ringtones to be downloaded to a mobile phone. The system
currently only supports tones to Nokia phones, but will expand to other
manufacturers devices early in the New Year, when downloadable graphics and
logos will be added. The company is also looking at alternative payment
solutions, particularly those targeting teens that do not hold credit or
debit cards.
'There are many services available offering downloadable ringtones,
commented CEO Andrew Herron, 'however, they tend to be expensive at anything
up to £4.99 for a single tone. We have engaged professional musicians to
author over three hundred tones covering a broad range of musical interests,
and decided that 50p per tone will encourage repeat purchases'.

The company is fully compliant with the digital requirements for performance
and transmission of licensed music materials, holding licenses from both
MCPS and PRS, and is currently in discussions with a number of partners
interested in integrating ringtones and free online SMS services (launched
in November) into their websites. 'We've done the hard work, developing a
scaleable back-end technical infrastructure that enables us to offer a
turnkey solution to third parties, opening up access to over 200 mobile
global networks via our own SMS gateway' stated Herron.

To complement the ringtone service, Onfone is planning to launch a weekly
ringtone chart in the New Year. The chart will be compiled from registered
users responding to a weekly SMS alert. As an incentive to vote, each
respondent will receive a free ringtone, and will be entered into a draw to
win the top 5 CD albums. The company is currently seeking appropriate
sponsors for this service.

According to Herron, 'text messaging is likely to be the driving application
for Wireless Information services over the next 12 months. We are therefore
initially focussing on the development of a wide range of SMS based
services, leveraging the voracious appetite that our target demographic has
for text messaging. Planned services will broadly fall into the following
categories:

· Digital vouchers and promotions;
· Information (reminders, news, messaging/email, community services);
· Entertainment (ring tones, graphic images, music, games, surveys,
quizzes, themed chat services);
· Transactions/offers (shopping, ticketing, auctions, last minute
offers).

Further details available by emailing info@onfone.com