Cricket Announces Fun New Mobile Entertainment Service

March 27, 2007--NMS Communications today announced that Cricket Communications, Inc., a leading provider of unlimited wireless services, has partnered with NMS Communications to use NMS’s MyCaller™ Ringback solution. Content management and billing will be provided by Wmode’s ClearMode® offering.

With plans to launch later this year, Cricket’s more than 2.2 million customers will be able to use songs or other sounds to replace the standard tone callers hear as they wait for their call to be answered with audio entertainment ─ including music, sounds or celebrity voices.

Ringback service is a popular way for mobile operators like Cricket Communications to increase their revenues and reduce customer churn. And because ringback tones are integrated into the network, operators have complete control of the revenue stream. According to Ovum, ringback tone revenues are expected to reach $2 billion globally by 2009.

“The partnership with Cricket demonstrates that pre-paid users, as well as post-paid, want the fun, personalized experience delivered by MyCaller, and we’re thrilled to be working with such an innovator in mobile communications,” said John Orlando, chief marketing officer for NMS. “NMS’s MyCaller Ringback solution uniquely allows operators to easily provide subscribers with the fun and exciting music content that they want to help further define their mobile personalities and interact with the service to reinforce their communities. With Cricket's adoption of the MyCaller Ringback application, more than 25 operators are utilizing MyCaller. No other vendor has a global operator footprint as large as NMS, with the depth of experience that implies.”

MyCaller Ringback includes premium features that engage the subscriber – and their callers – in a way that involves using the mobile phone as more than a simple communication device, but rather as a way to build and reinforce the subscriber’s identity and communities. This in turn drives user adoption and operator ARPU. These features include:

• Radio Station Play – subscribers select a music channel (e.g., jazz, classical, hip-hop, pop) and songs of that genre are randomly played to callers
  
• Gift Song – subscribers purchase a song and send it to another subscriber as a present or for a special occasion
  
• Shuffle Play – selections from the subscriber’s library of music are randomly played to callers
  

The true audio content of ringback clips is more exciting than simple electronic tones, and subscribers appreciate that they can choose songs that they like and also assign different songs to particular callers that those individuals will like. With MyCaller Ringback, subscribers can even gift songs to their callers. This in turn produces a viral effect and drives adoption for the MyCaller Ringback service. NMS has more ringback deployments than any other ringback provider and the company’s expertise and experience ensures operators of a world-class solution.

For more information on Cricket visit www.mycricket.com.

SOURCE Cricket