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Airtel launches Ring-N-Fun service over SmartTrust's mobile service delivery infrastructure Ring-N-Fun: Menu-driven ringtone and graphic downloads from the handset. Device-aware service allows users to search for ringtone content using keywords. 7th August 2003: India's largest mobile operator, Airtel, has announced the launch of Ring-N-Fun, an interactive content service that lets subscribers search for ringtones based on a song's title. The service leverages Airtel's existing mobile service and delivery infrastructure from SmartTrust, allowing Ring-N-Fun content to be delivered over the SMS channel and displayed as menu items on the handset. The service also includes logo and screen saver downloads. Airtel first began using SmartTrust Delivery Platform (DP) and new 32k SIM cards pre-loaded with the SmartTrust WIBä in 2002. The infrastructure allowed Airtel to launch a series of value-added services, such as news, infotainment and mobile dating, designed to build on the popularity of SMS. Ring-N-Fun is the latest service to be added to the portfolio, which is designed to target the widest possible user base through simple-to-use menus and an SMS delivery channel. In addition to operator set ringtone categories, users are able to search for ringtones based on song titles. Searching for a particular word of the song title will call up all matched songs in the database. The user is then able to playback, save or discard the download. The service, including logo and screensaver downloads, is device aware, this allows the service to recognise the user's device-type and download the appropriate ringtone or image. "Our services are based very much around the notion of scroll...send.receive. There are certainly no specific keywords or SMS short codes to remember," explains Mr. Rohit Bhatia, Head of Product Development at Bharti Televentures. "The SmartTrust infrastructure allows us to add new menu items when new services, like Ring-N-Fun become available. The handset is no longer a static device and delivering a constant stream of new applications is key to our success." "SmartTrust has continuously worked closely with Bharti to optimise the versatility of the SmartTrust Delivery Platform. Helping the operator to deliver mobile services that are easy-to-use and easy-to-access are our ultimate objectives in this business relationship," finishes Sharad Arora, SmartTrust Regional Manager for India and Middle East.