Cellebrum launches Background Music in India

Posted on | April 27, 2006 |

VAS solution provider Cellebrum has tied up with operators like Idea, Spice and Reliance Telecom at the national level and is also running a pilot programme for Airtel for its landline services in the Madhya Pradesh Circle. Over 170,000 Idea and Spice subscribers have tried the BGM service till now.

With Background Music, you can have accompanying music during phone conversations for ambience while chatting. In order to use the service, the user needs to dial a prefix (say 234) before the phone number, for the call to be connected with the Music M-vironment (BGM). Without the prefix, the call will be connected as a normal phone call. Users can always change background sound at will by dialling provided IVRS (Interactive Voice Response Services) Interface.

Cost of using the service varies from operator to operator. There are three kind of charges — the activation charge, the chosen background song and per minute cost of the song.

This solution is different from CRBT solution, where music is played before the call is connected. In BGM, music is played after the call is connected. Technically, it is a conference service, which involves the calling party, called party and the music playing entity, which is also, part of the conference. This entity is responsible for playing back music during the conversation.

The limitation of the service is that the caller has to be within the coverage area of the home network, as it is an IVR based service and will not be accessible outside home network.

Thinking of analogies, I feel the service is similar to IMVironments in Yahoo Messenger chat. You can choose different Background Music for different numbers, play expression like press 1 to play a child crying sound or press 3 for a glass crashing sound (showing the person on the other line has broken your heart etc.)

I am excited about the idea of the service and am keen to see its market acceptance. It has couple of elements common with a hit service like CRBT.

• It is network based, so the user does not have to download any app to use the service (unlike videotones).
• It is a tool to show-off or express yourself and therefore clicks with teenagers.

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