How Can I Stop My Ring-Tone From Switching To The Cingular Ring-Tone?

Question

I customized my Motorola Razr phone to ring in a specific ring-tone. Despite this, every few days the phone will switch to the Cingular generic ring-tone. When I check my Audio preferences, my customizations are still intact. How do I prevent this from happening...or why is it happening? I often miss calls because I do not acknowledge the Cingular ring to be from my phone.

Answer 1

Possible solutions (no specific model specified Razr verson XX)

User
- The combination of buttons on the phone easily changes, such that objects in a confined space are able to change ring tone and/or volume.

Ensure call service station linked to Cingular is turned off.
- Call service station and/or data downloads from the service provide may automatically change the ring tone default.

Service provider defaults
- Just as the service provider determines the duration a phone will ring before going into Voice-mail (usually time set of 20-30 seconds), the ring tone has been ‘hard wired’ into the phone. (1)

Circumvention is possible by connecting the phone to a computer which one seems adept at using, but finding the right firmware to override the phone's settings is another issue.

Be sure to run the service provider's contract over for exclusion clauses or the equivalent to ensure that this does not constitute as tampering.


1. Some service providers request manufacturers to customise phones for retail sales.

When country specific engineers obtain phones to perform laboratory and field tests, alteration by engineers are tailored to pre-market release performance internal and statutory quality checks, as well as meet customer (Cingular) requirements.

Customized firmware are released with retail units before being shipped to Cingular's warehouse, ready to go sans SIM card.

Unlocking Fee
A mobile user is dissuaded from migrating onto another network by forfeiting the use of the phone on another service provider’s network, whereas a penalty settled (‘unlocking fee’) to unlock the PUK code retained by the service provider would enable benefits thereof. This may include releasing the service provider’s settings such as ring tones.

In so far as that the change to the phone is used to publicise the service provider through the consumer’s retail unit, this is a reverse or one step further of the above mentioned market retention strategy.

(So much for free market competition. Appologies on not being able to obtain references on cartel and anti-monopolistic practises.
Such practices were common in England with PCN networks like One-2-One and Orange UK five years ago, though not on GSM networks like Vodaphone and BT, since privatised and rebranded as O2.)