Old Phone Ringtones

Some people think it’s cool to have the latest popular tune announcing every cell phone call. Others prefer a cell phone that sounds more like a… well, more like a phone.

Call me a square, but I’m in that second group. I prefer old phone ringtones that recall the clunky phones from my childhood. Or better yet, the brrring, brrring, brrring you hear in the movies from vintage phones from the 1920s and 1930s.

If you share my nostalgia for classic phones, and your carrier allows you to download or install new ringtones, check out the antique phone sounds below.

To be truly different in a world that’s desperately trying to be hip and up-to-date, you have to be square and hopelessly out-of-date. The best way to be cool is to be so uncool you come out the other side.

Old Phone Ringtones
These are polyphonic MIDI ringtones, so your cell phone would need to support that format (many do, including the BlackBerry).

They sound as good as MP3 files on most of the recent models, and are worth trying if you want your mobile phone to sound like an old-style, traditional phone.

American Phone
Arubian Phone
Belarussian Phone
British Phone
Chinese Phone
Egyptian Phone
French Phone
German Phone
Icelandic Phone
Italian Phone
Japanese Phone
Malaysian Phone
Russian Phone
Swedish Phone
Swiss Phone
Venezuelan Phone