MTNL Introduces Friend Finder Service for GSM Subscribers

Reported by Sanjay May 3rd, 2010 at 03:05 pm

Always wondering where your nearest and dearest is? Eager to locate a friend (in a way that doesn't violate their privacy)? Yes! With Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) Mumbai's exciting new Value Added Service Dubbed as Friend Finder, your 'liked' or loved one is always just an SMS away!

MTNL today announced the launch of new VAS 'Friend Finder' a user-friendly service for its GSM mobile services subscribers (Dolphin/Trump) in Mumbai that can immediately locate their family member or buddy. The Friend Finder operates using, not a long-lens telescope or a private eye, but simply your mobile phone! With just a simple typed-in SMS command, you'll be given the approximate location of the person you're looking for.

What's more, MTNL's Friend Finder is a 100% permission-based service - a safeguard which prevents its misuse. Users require the explicit permission of people they'd like to regularly track before being able to enjoy the service. They, in turn, can grant or deny permission to others who wish to locate them.

Tariff and How to Use-:

To use this service, first a user has to subscribe to this service by sending SMS to 52323. Friend Finder is available in weekly pack (Rs.7/-) and monthly pack (Rs.25/-). Once subscribed the customer can add friends and find their location by sending simple SMSes to 52323 as given in table below.

SMS Key Word	Description
SUBW / SUBM	For activation of weekly or monthly subscription, respectively.
UNSUB	To unsubscribe from the service.
HELP	To get usage information for the service.
ADD / DEL	To add or delete a friend from your friend-list.
FIND	To get the location of a friend.
LIST	To get a list of various friends in the friend-list.
NICK	To assign a nick-name to a friend (for easy reference).

Tariff In Details-:

There are no additional charges for adding, deleting, finding etc. apart from the weekly/monthly subscription charges. The customer can have as many friends and use as much as he/she can.