October 23, 2007

By By Antony Bruno, San Francisco

RealNetworks unveiled a new ringback tone format for the U.S. called Multimedia Ringbacks at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Francisco today (Oct. 23).

Already live in South Korea, format allows users to prompt a music video to play on the phone screen of the person calling them, in addition to the song they hear.

Unlike ringback tones, which work with all types of phones calling a person using a ringback tone service, the video ringback feature would be available only to other users with video-enabled phones running RealNetworks? technology.

RealNetworks did not announce any carrier partners for the new technology, only that it is now offering the service domestically.

Subscribe to Billboard magazine today!