Donate to your favourite temple via phone

Airtel has launched a new service -- Temple Offering -- for its subscribers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The service will help Airtel subscribers to make their donations to temples using their mobile phones.

Presently, the offerings can be made to four temples --Mantralaya (AP), Siddhivinayak (Mumbai), Dharmasthala (Karnataka) and Jalaram Temple in Bangalore.

The service will soon be extended to Tirupati, Shirdi Saibaba, Vaishnodevi and Mahalakshmi temples, according to company sources.

An Airtel customer wishing to use the service needs to type the temple keyword, the amount he/she wishes to donate and SMS 'temple code amount' to 64655. For example, if a person wants to donate Rs 150 to the Dharmasthala temple, he has to key in 'SDM 150' and SMS to 64655. The keywords for the Mantralaya temple is 'SRS', Siddhi Vinayak Temple is 'SVT' and Jalaram temple is 'JST'.

The SMSes will reach the desired temples through a software deployed in the premises of these temples. This will record the amount donated, time, date and the number from which it has been made. The customer has to pay Rs 4 per SMS.

In case of a postpaid user, the donated amount will be debited from the bill and for a pre-paid customer, this will be deducted from his pre-paid balance.

After the donation is processed, the customer gets an instant message for the offering with a message of blessing along with a digital receipt number that needs to be preserved. The donations can vary from a minimum of Rs 10 to a maximum of Rs 150.