In keeping with a long standing tradition, SaskTel once again expects Mother’s Day to be one of the busiest calling days of the year for our customers.  However, with the advancements in communications technology that has exploded in recent years, the way we choose to connect with our moms is changing rapidly.  Down from an all time high of approximately one million long distance calls being placed in 2009, in 2014, SaskTel anticipates that customers will place approximately 500,000 or half a  million long distance calls this Mother’s Day, May 11th.   

The decline in calls placed year after year is supplemented by the exponential growth in SMS text messages that are sent and received on Mother’s Day.  SaskTel estimates that over 6.3 million text messages will be sent and 6.8 million text messages will be received by SaskTel customers this May 11th.

SaskTel projects that 42% of the wireline long distance calls will be to Saskatchewan locations, about 55% will be to Canadian destinations outside Saskatchewan, and about 3% of the calls will go to the United States and overseas.

Here are some tips for placing phone calls on Mother’s Day:

• To minimize delays or busy signals, customers should avoid calling between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and between 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
• It’s best to place direct-dialed calls instead of operator-assisted calls.
• Callers should also check the phone number before they dial.
• Ensure time zone differences are taken into consideration.

Customers can save on long distance calling with SaskTel calling plans and flexible bundles. More information is available at http://www.sasktel.com/.

About SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation (SaskTel) is the leading full service communications provider in Saskatchewan, with $1.2 billion in annual revenue and over 1.4 million customer connections including over 607,000 wireless accesses, 492,000 wireline network accesses, 250,000 internet accesses and 100,000 maxTV subscribers.  SaskTel offers a wide range of communications products and services including competitive voice, data, internet, entertainment, security monitoring, messaging, cellular, wireless data and directory services. In addition, SaskTel International offers software solutions and project consulting in countries around the world.  SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 4,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at http://www.sasktel.com/.


For more information, please contact:
Tara Tibeau, SaskTel Manager of External Communications
Phone: 306.777.4548    
E-mail: tara.tibeau@sasktel.com