A Ring Back Tone (RBT), or Audible Ringing Tone or Ring Back Signal, is the audible ringing that is heard on the telephone line by the calling party after dialing and prior to the call being answered at the receiving end.
Companies that refer to call tones as ring back tones are only creating confusion amongst those people who are looking for call tones for their phones.
Ring Back Tone Characteristics
The ring back tone is different in various countries depending on the requirements for the ring back specification in those countries.
For example, in the NANP (United States, Canada, and others), the standard ring back signal is generated by summing a 440Hz tone with a 480Hz tone and applying these to the telephone line in a 2 second on and 4 second off cadence. The tone combination produces a warbling "ring... ring..." sound, caused by the 40Hz beat between the two.
Most other countries use a single tone, as do some PBX and key phone systems.
In the UK and many other Commonwealth countries, it's a signature double beep, which has been made famous by being included at the end of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2."
The ring back signal may be generated by the called party servicing switch or by the calling party switch, but it is not generated by the called telephone instrument. It is generally started and stopped at the same rate as the ringing signal itself but perhaps out of phase.
- Unfortunately, ringback tone is still used to describe the ring-ring sound that people will hear on your phone when you don't have any call tones.
Remember:
When you are searching the Internet for call tones, not all suppliers actually refer to them as call tones. Some of the other terms you'll have to search for are...
Using the above search terms, you should find the call tones you're looking for, especially if the call tones suppliers are using one of these alternative descriptions.
Good Luck in your search.
Call tones are actually more versatile than ringtones.
