Landlines and cell phones have different ring tones. While most landline phones have only one ringtone (the familiar brrrrrring sound), cell phones give you a lot of options. The standard ringtone of landlines phones are rapidly becoming a thing of the past as more and more people make the transition to cellular.



Cell phone ring tones are commonly used to customize phones. Many cell phones are sold already loaded with a variety of ring tones; a lot of people just stick with the default ring tone, however and whenever their phone rings it makes the same old sound.

There are different kinds of ring tones available for you to select. There are monophonic ringtones, which are very basic – just one tone is plated at a time. These ringtones tend to be very simple. More popular than these are polyphonic ringtones, which offer many notes at once. Last of all and increasing in popularity is the true tone; these cell phone ring tones are created from a music file (MP3 or WMA) and are generally about 15 seconds of a song, usually the hook. You can customize your phone by assigning a different tone to each caller on your contacts list. (get a complimentary ringtone at http://www.freeringtonestoday.com)

You see ringtone promotions everywhere these days; offers of a free ring tone in exchange for signing on to an email list or other conditions. However, you can get these ringtones for a mere 99 cents, which if you ask me is a better deal than signing up to get a deluge of email. If your phone has a recording function, you can even make your own ringtones by recording a sound, even the voice of the caller you want to assign the ringtone to.

You carry your cell phone with you everywhere – why not customize it to make it more personal? There is certainly no shortage of ringtones out there –you can easily find one for every person on your contacts list. Pretty much any song you can think of is available as a true ring tone.

Personally, I have five ringtones on my cell phone and I use one for my wife, another for my tech-savvy eight year old son and yet another for a college friend of mine. When you know who's calling, you never have to deal with callers who called the wrong number or a salesperson.

It's fun to pick out ring tones for the different people on your SIM card. People always talk about how technology has made the world a more impersonal place – well, cell phones are one aspect of our tech-obsessed culture where creativity and personality are alive and well!

You can buy ringtones on the web or make your own. Some of the websites which offer ringtones for purchase are subscription based –be sure to check out what they have to offer before signing up. You don't want to be stuck with a choice of ringtones which you do not like or want.