Verizon Wireless announced today it is the first national carrier to offer Ringback Tones - short clips of real music that replace the standard ring callers hear when they call the Verizon Wireless phone of a Ringback Tone subscriber.

Customers in Sacramento and throughout southern California are the first to be able to personalize the sounds callers hear before a call is answered. Customers can browse from an initial catalog of more than 2,200 songs in 13 different music genres from Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

Set-up options include a standard ringback tone (including the Verizon Wireless standard ringback tone), or customers can choose to have different ringback tones play for different callers based on the Caller ID, Group List or the time of day.

Ringback Tones are available to Verizon Wireless customers in Sacramento and Southern California markets beginning today for a monthly fee of $0.99 per month. Each ringback tone purchased is $1.99, which provides unlimited use for one year. Both the monthly fee and cost for each tone appear on the customer's monthly bill.

Verizon Wireless expects Ringback Tones to be available throughout its network by mid-2005.