I have been a cell phone user since 1987. I worked in the industry for 10 years. I wrote two books on cellphones.
I wanted to get a new phone recently. My old LG VX7000 doesn't have Bluetooth. It does however let me access the ringtones that the manufacturer, LG, included in the phone. The new LG VX8600 I've been looking at includes the sounds that I like as my ringtones, but they are not available to me as ringtones. Verizon Wireless has restricted the access to a very basic, boring set of ringers. Any ringtones I want to add to the phone, I must pay for through their GetItNow program. My old LG had the ability for me to record a sound, such as my own voice, and use that sound for whatever I wanted: an alarm, a ringtone, etc. With the new LG, I can record a sound, but I can not use it as a ringtone. Nor can I buy a ringtone from another source, upload it to my phone, and have access to it for whatever I choose. The sound goes into the bank of 'Too bad, you can't use it' sounds.
To a new, inexperienced user, this inability to access ringtones and sounds may not have the impact that it does to me and other users who took advantage of these features.
I called LG and asked them if there was a way that I could get access to the special ringtones they included with the phone. They told me no. That Verizon Wireless specified what tones would be accessible and where they would be stored in the phone.
I feel that Verizon Wireless has maliciously created a forced pay network for me to customize the ringtones on my phone. I like the Rain Forest ringtone that LG provides. If I replace my phone with a new LG, that ringtone will be unavailable to me. Nor could I message it to my new phone and have it available to me in another brand of phone
I am also confident that this issue could be resolved with a flash upgrade to the phone software, for those of us who want to have access to ringtones that the manufacturer provides as well as those sounds we personally record, or pay for from a third party provider.
Has anyone found a solution to this issue?
