Cingular sells ring tones

Cingular Wireless is among the first carriers in the United States to take a stab at selling ring tones for cell phones. The company announced Monday it is now selling different ring tones, from snippets of songs to TV show theme songs, for people to download to their cell phones. Each download costs 99 cents and will show up as a charge on the customer's phone bill. Ring tones are among the "killer apps" that carriers in Europe, where cell phone service is more widespread, have been using as a surprisingly strong revenue generator. Cingular may be the first in the United States to sell ring tones directly to its customers, but other carriers will likely add to the cacophony sometime later this year, analysts believe.