Picking up the Phone Still Matters on Mother’s Day

Picking up the Phone Still Matters on Mother’s Day

Telecom offers Kiwis free calling to New Zealand landlines from payphones this Mother’s Day

There’s now no excuse not have a chat with Mum on Mother’s Day, with Telecom saying it will once again make calls from its more than 3,000 payphones around the country free this Sunday (11 May). The free calling will apply to all calls from pay phones to New Zealand landlines, and will run from 7am till 9pm.

CEO Telecom Retail Chris Quin said when Telecom looked at its customers’ use of the network on Mother’s Day in 2013, it was clear that giving Mum a call is still a popular way to connect.

“Generally we’re seeing the more traditional ways of communicating, like calling and texting, are in decline for our customers, in favour of social media or other digital channels. Data is definitely the future for Telecom.

“But, funnily enough, things are a little different on Mother’s Day. It seems that when it comes to telling Mum how much we appreciate her, our customers are much more likely to pick up the phone.3

“Since we launched our national WiFi network last year, most of our customers are probably more likely to gather outside Telecom’s phone boxes to use their 1GB of free data, rather than because they want to make a call. This Sunday, we will of course have WiFi available via almost 1,000 hotspots, so if you want to use your free data to Snapchat, Facebook or Tweet Mum, you certainly can. But if you prefer to go old school and give Mum a ring, just step inside the phone box while you’re waiting for your Spotify playlist to download, and you can call her and have a chat - for free.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. On Sunday 11 May, Telecom will make calls from Telecom Phone Boxes to New Zealand landlines free from 7am to 9am.

2. Telecom’s WiFi network gives mobile customers on selected prepay packs and pay-monthly plans up to 1GB of mobile data a day over almost 1,000 hotspots nationwide, with the network growing all the time. Many of these WiFi hotspots are located on Telecom’s phone boxes. More information can be found at telecom.co.nz/wifi

3. On Mother’s Day 2013, Telecom customers spent an additional 700,000 minutes talking on their landlines compared to the previous Sunday, whereas broadband data consumption nationally showed no noticeable increase.

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