Telstra’s Free Calls to Santa hotline is ringing again. From now until Christmas Eve, kids across Australia can dial #HOHOHO (#464646) from any of Telstra’s 14,000+ payphones to chat with the North Pole.

Behind the scenes, Google Cloud’s AI tools help Santa have a unique, real-time conversation with every child. The experience is powered by Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite, which helps make every call a unique, real-time conversation. Santa's cheerful personality is expressed using Gemini, with a custom voice created from special recordings to capture his warm and friendly tone.

Strong guardrails and carefully designed prompts ensure every interaction stays safe, age-appropriate, and focused purely on the joy of Christmas.

Working alongside OMD Australia and fullstop.ai, Telstra is turning a simple phone line into an interactive, joyful experience that has already connected nearly 2 million calls to the North Pole since 2021.