Australians are expected to send 76 million text messages for the New Year. The figure would top the estimated 65 million SMS sent by Aussies on Christmas Day.

Besides sending text messages, service provider Optus forecast that on the first day of 2012, Australians would also make 51 million calls from their mobile phones and 44 million calls from their landlines.

They would likely spend over 3.9 million minutes talking with friends and relatives on New Year's day.

The New Year estimates would again top the Christmas calls forecast by Optus of 34 million calls made using cellular phones and another 32 million using home phones.

Optus said that majority of the holiday calls would be made to the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Vietnam.

The firm said that in preparation for the rise of phone use during the Yuletide and New Year holidays, it made capacity upgrades on its systems, particularly in known holiday hotspots such as Arlie Beach, Ballina, Byron Bay, Cairns, Hervey Bay, Philip Island, Port Douglas, Port Stephens, Surfers Paradise and Victor Harbour.

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