2024 Marks Record-Breaking Year for Data Usage in Australia.

Every day, our mobile phones are like a trusty sidekick—helping us check the news, dodge emails, and stay connected with friends and family through calls and texts. And if you’re wondering just how much we’ve been glued to our phones in 2024, Australian telcos have some stats to prove it.

Calls Galore

Even if phone calls aren’t everyone’s favorite, they’re far from extinct. Telstra reported a staggering 60 million calls per day, while Vodafone, with fewer but often younger customers, still tallied 11 million daily calls. That’s billions of calls annually! Fridays are the busiest calling days for Vodafone, with Black Friday taking the top spot this year—not for sweet chats with Mum on Mother’s Day, but likely for hunting down the best deals.

Texting Frenzy

Texting remains a big deal too. Vodafone customers send an average of 2.9 texts daily, amounting to 2.7 billion texts this year—or about 7.6 million texts a day. Telstra blows past that with 40 million texts sent daily. These numbers only include old-school SMS, not the app-based messages on iMessage or WhatsApp.

February 13 was the busiest day for texting on Vodafone—perhaps filled with last-minute Valentine’s plans or hurriedly ordering flowers. A reminder, though, not all texts are sweet. Scams are a big problem, with 165 million scam calls and texts blocked by Optus this year alone.

Data Dominance

But here’s where things get truly mind-blowing—our data usage. Telstra reports 9 million gigabytes (GB) of data flowing through their networks daily. That’s equivalent to binge-watching an HD show on Netflix for 342 years straight. Optus users burned through 1 billion GB this year, averaging about 3 million GB per day, while Vodafone customers are using close to 1 GB daily, with their 2024 average sitting at 882MB.

Expect New Year’s Eve to break records again as the busiest day for data use—while Christmas Eve is surprisingly one of the quietest.

Bigger, Faster, More Connected

It’s official: we’re more dependent on our phones than ever. From endless scrolling and streaming to staying connected and informed, our reliance on mobile connectivity keeps growing. Whether it’s messaging, data usage, or hunting for deals over the phone, 2024 has been a record-breaking year for staying connected.