Santa Meets Telephone Technology

A small Christchurch company, TeleMessenger, offers a service where Santa will call your child.

Traditionally, people who wish to speak to Santa would call him through Telecom’s service at 0800-222-222 (New Zealand). However, TeleMessenger puts a new twist by allowing parents to make a request for Santa to directly call the child.

All the parents have to do is enter their phone number and email address at www.santacall.co.nz and a few minutes later their phone rings. Santa will ask the child what they would like for Christmas and record that list for the parents to view through email.

"It's easy, it's fun, and our six and eight year olds loved it," TeleMessenger co-founder Mayell says.

The Santa Calls are free, and are being used to demonstrate interactive telephone technology, he says.

Early next year, a new communication tool will be launched using TeleMessenger software to deliver talking email from your phone.

Mayell comments that Voice recognition software is playing a major role in today’s meld of the internet and telephone, offering many new technological opportunities.