Sony Ericsson was a mobile phone joint venture formed in 2001 between Sony and Ericsson, and its handsets became widely known during the 2000s for their built in ringtones and media features. Short default rings like this one were heard daily on buses, in classrooms and in offices before personalised smartphone tones took over. As those phones disappeared, recordings of their rings survived online in soundboards and video edits, where the simple ring ring ring pattern now signals an old school call, a comic interruption or a deliberate throwback to that period.