Esato

Mosquito ringtone gets dropped

18 October 2006 by axxxr
Phat Tonez removes the adult-proof Mosquito ringtone from sale due to waves of complaints.

The mobile phone ringtone that has shocked the world this year is the high-pitch Mosquito ringtone famous for being the ringtone that only kids can hear.

The ringtone has been labelled "adult proof" due to a bizarre medical phenomenon called the Presbycusis Effect. This makes the ringtone silent to most people aged over 20 whereas children can hear a squeeky or scratching kind of high pitched mosquito-like sound.

Incredible numbers of kids downloading the high pitch adult proof ringtone inevitably led to floods of heated complaints from infuriated parents and teachers landing on the doorstep of leading online mobile phone ringtone provider www.tonez.co.uk.

Schools have complained that whilst mobile phones are banned in lessons, the silent ringtone has given many kids the excuse to leave their phones on in lessons believing that the teacher will not know their phone is ringing but teachers complain their lessons are being disrupted by every other pupil turning towards the culprit when their mobile phone starts to ring with the mosquito sound.

James Winsoar, Company Director of www.tonez.co.uk realised enough was enough when the hundredth recorded complaint fell onto his desk on Friday 13th October. James said, "Originally we thought the stealth ringtone was an amazing use of mobile phone technology, but we have to square up to our social responsibilities too and therefore have taken the unprecidented action of removing the ringtone from sale altogether".

James Winsoar was the first person to launch a commercial ringtone service back in 1999 and his www.tonez.co.uk website is still going strong to this day. He has appeared on consumer advocacy television programmes in the past, such as the BBC Hard Cash programme which exposed how other ringtone companies were unfairly targetting children with high priced mobile phone downloads.

Never before has a ringtone company removed a ringtone from sale due to customer complaints. The only time ringtones have ever been removed from sale before was when record company EMI placed restrictions on certain songs being offered as digital downloads. Usually record companies receive a percentage from each ringtone sold.

The www.tonez.co.uk website will not be selling any more high pitched ringtones to children in the future but James Winsoar did add, "We always strive to be at the forefront of ringtone advances and will continue to offer compelling content to mobile phone owners worldwide".






Comments
On 20 Oct 08:07 TonyS wrote
Some people i know cant hear it and some can, and theyre 40+
Its annoying too!
The one adults cant hear is 17000khz and you can make it easily on audacity rather than paying for it!
On 20 Oct 00:15 Geezay wrote
Unbelievable! Can someone send me this tone? I am curious as to this phenomenon
On 19 Oct 18:44 SnakeSmoke wrote
It is a load of rubbish, both my parents can hear this an they are both over 40, my dad nearing 50!

Most people, young or old can hear it...
On 19 Oct 14:52 BibBoy wrote
What a load of rubbish!! Even my Mum could hear and she's 63....
On 19 Oct 11:55 Rajjy wrote
This has got to be a windup. A ringonte that anyone over 20yrs old can't hear?!?! Shut up!
On 19 Oct 09:41 Ahamadu wrote
Eerie ! The potential for mischief by kids is indeed high.

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