Mahanagr Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) finally introduced prepaid talk time transfer service, which will enable its prepaid 2G and 3G customer to seamless transfer balance to any other MTNL prepaid customer in Mumbai circle. The only catch here is that both the prepaid customer will have to be in Mumbai circle.
The way this MTNL Trump Balance Transfer service works is that the subscriber who want to transfer the balance, need to activate the service and getting Transfer Key (password) by calling 1503 /9869012345 from their MTNL Mobile. To set Transfer key subscriber should call 1503 first and request operator to set his 4 digit secret transfer key (as per his choice) e.g. 1234, 8888 etc.
After Setting one time Transfer Key (password) customer will have to dial *450#‹Transfer key›*‹Transfer Amount in Rs›*‹Receiver number›#. For example if MTNL subscriber 9869298692 wants to transfer Rs 15 to 9869012345 then the donor will dial *450#1234*15*9869012345#. Here, Rs 15 + Processing Charges shall be deducted from talk time of donor. Both donor and receiver will get notification by SMS.
The minimum transfer amount is Rs 5 and the maximum one time amount transferable is Rs 50. Cumulative amount transfer by donor in a single day is limited to Rs 50, the person transferring the balance will be charged service fee of Rs.3 per transaction up to Rs.15 and from Rs.16 to Rs.50 it will be 20% of the amount transferred.
In a time where mobile subscribers, specially in Metros like Mumbai are aware of online banking and online recharges, not sure if this MTNL's Prepaid Balance service is really of value. The most important thing in any on-line recharge is that one does not have to pay any transaction fee and MTNL charging 20% on small amount like Rs.50, however small or recharge it may be and there are no caps.
Moreover, MTNL Mumbai is very late to launch this service when almost all leading mobile service providers providing the same service from last few years.There are plenty of site offering free benefits with on-line recharge, we are not sure if this scheme as relevant today with extra cost for transferring balance with own network.
