Telstra claims that Australian dads are being short-changed on Father’s Day with people ditching phone calls and instead turning to SMS to greet their dad.
In addition, records also revealed that thousands of Australians have the cheek to call their dads with reverse charge calls on Father’s Day. Dads also waited until much later in the day to hear from their kids compared to the early morning calls to mums on Mother’s Day.
Telstra Consumer Executive Director, Jenny Young said, “The numbers show that mums receive far more calls on Mother’s Day and that mums get called earlier in the day. For fathers, most callers leave it until the early evening to call Dad with use of Telstra’s networks peaking between 6pm and 9pm.”
“In the lead-up to Fathers Day, we want to remind Australians to pick up the phone and call Dad on Father’s Day, just like you do for mum on Mother’s Day,” added Young.
The figures reveal that:
- Telstra expects more than 26 million text messages to be sent on Father’s Day. This is one million more text messages sent compared to Mother’s Day this year.
- Fourteen million voice calls are expected to be made on Father’s Day, compared to around 20 million voice calls on Mother’s Day.
- As dads become more tech savvy, photo and video messages are on the rise with an increase of 14 percent this year from last Father’s Day.
- An increase of 11 percent on reverse charge calls on Father’s Day, compared to the average Sunday.
- Video calls to Dad represent a growing trend on Fathers’ Day with thousands expected to say “Happy Father’s Day” face to face via a video call this year.
For this Father’s Day, Telstra is offering gift ideas and gadgets on BigPond Shopping and dads who love their sport can access a wide range of content available through their compatible Next G mobile. They can subscribe to the latest sports news and scores from AFL, NRL, V8 Supercars and horse racing to ensure they don’t miss any action from their favourite sports.