8% of subscriber base subscribes to Ringback Tones within one month of launch

Cape Town, 18th November, 2008 – Jinny Software, a leading supplier of personalised messaging and media processing platforms to mobile network operators, today announced that its Ringback Tone Server solution has driven a tremendous 10-day return-on-investment (ROI) for a Zain Group operator in Africa. The initial 8% uptake by the 4.5-million subscriber base meant the operator was able to re-coup initial capital outlay, rapidly, within a 10-day period, through additional revenues generated from Ringback Tone subscriptions and tones purchased.

The service allows mobile subscribers to reflect their personality by setting a preferred Ringback Tone for callers to hear before their call is answered. It replaces the normal ringtone heard when placing a call to someone, with a popular ringtone, a sound-clip, or a self-recorded message. Navigation through the system is guided by a free-to-access IVR system, which allows subscribers to subscribe, unsubscribe, dedicate, replace, record, personalise and manage their music box and assign different ring tones to different caller IDs. Ringback Tones can also be personalised through SMS.

After only one year from service launch, the Zain Group operator currently has 450,000 active subscribers to the Ringback Tone service, representing 10% of its total subscriber base. Subscription to the service is charged on a monthly basis and costs approximately US$0.45 per month. Each song or tone purchased costs US$0.45 and lasts for 60 days and renewal cost per song/tone is US$0.45. Content is organised into eight different categories of Ringback Tones, including top ten, local language tones, Middle East-specific tones such as Islamic, Arabic and Khaliji tones, English tones, as well as a variety of other content. The availability of local language and Arabic content is of crucial importance to the success of this service and drives Ringback Tone content sales. The operator sells, on average, 300,000 tones each month.

The Ringback Tone solution was initially set up to support a small subscriber base, but quickly grew to support the rapidly increased service demand. The modular structure of Jinny’s Ringback Tone solution means that any additional capacity requirement can be supported by adding additional media gateways, as and when required.

Jinny Software signed a framework agreement earlier in 2008 to become the preferred supplier of Ringback Tone Servers to the Zain Group in Africa and across the Middle East, following a very detailed technical and commercial evaluation.