This ringtone is silent, but deadly

Stuart Corner
Monday, 30 October 2006 16:55

Opinion and Analysis

You may have heard of a new gimmick, aimed at teenagers: a downloadable ringtone for their cellphone that is of such a high pitch that the older ears of parents, teachers and other such undesirables can't hear it. The ringtone is free but it comes with some rather unpleasant baggage.
I've just seen an web site advert for this 'free' ringtone. The site was US based but the ad, cleverly, identified me as being in Australia and was tailored appropriately.

The advert came from Dublin based 'Celldorado' who invited me to test the 'silent' ringtone - "a guaranteed success at home or at school" - by clicking on a button "Can you hear it?" Of course I could not. If it's beyond the frequency response of my aging ears it's quite likely to be beyond the frequency response of my laptop's inbuilt speakers.

However suitably convinced I was invited to submit my mobile number and download this silent ringtone "free".  Then I read the small print. By doing so I automatically signed up to receive three ring tones per week at a cost of $4.00 per message. Total $24.00 per week or about $100 per month, charged to my mobile account! (If the maths doesn't seem right that's because it takes two messages to send each ringtone).

Of course I could stop the service by texting STOP to 191192, but let's say I didn't realise how much this was costing me until I got the first bill. By which time I'd be about $100 poorer and 12 ring tones better off. It's hard to imagine too many teenagers (remember this ad is targeted at those still at school) having a spare $100 per month to spend on ringtones. And anyway why would you want three new ones every week?

The small print also provides the assurance that "Celldorado operates according to the Australian code of conduct for SMS services."  No doubt it does, but perhaps that code needs tightening. And no wonder they call it 'Celldorado': there's gold aplenty here.