REGINA — People in Saskatchewan will be making more voice calls at Christmastime this year, with fewer people sending text messages over the holidays than previous years, according to SaskTel.
Over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Saskatchewan residents will choose to add a more personal touch to connecting with loved ones, with a 9% average increase in the number of traditional voice calls anticipated, SaskTel said in a news release Monday.
SaskTel says the increase in voice calls this year is expected to come at the expense of text messages, which are anticipated to see an average decrease of 2.4%. Christmas Day is expected to see the biggest growth among voice calls, averaging a 38% increase year-over-year, SaskTel says.
All told, SaskTel says it expects more than 1.8 million voice calls will be placed and 1.3 million calls will be received in Saskatchewan over the three-day Christmas period.
Over the same three days, more than 24.4 million text messages are anticipated to be sent and received by people in Saskatchewan, SaskTel says. That will be on top of the 415.2 terabytes of data that SaskTel expects will be uploaded and downloaded.
“Keeping people connected to their world is what we do, and no one tends to be more important to our worlds than the ones we love,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel president and CEO, in the news release. “Whether you use your phone to make a call, send a text, or online message this holiday season, we’re honoured to be here playing our small part in bringing friends and family together when distance gets in the way.”
