(File photo/CKOM Staff).

By Jeff D'Andrea and Ron Quaroni

Calling Mom

This Mother’s Day could break SaskTel’s usage records

May 9, 2020 | 1:14 PM

Mother’s Day is already the busiest day of the year for SaskTel, even in normal and non-pandemic times.

But now in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s Mother’s Day on Sunday could be the highest usage day ever for the Saskatchewan phone and internet company.

“That’s what we’re anticipating,” said Lindsay Mazenc, SaskTel’s external communications manager. “We realized how important it is for people to connect with mom, and because there might not be the case that you can see your mom in person, we’re thinking the video calling, especially the data usage, to be higher on Mother’s Day.”

Last year, Mazenc said there were 800,000 outgoing calls made and 500,000 incoming calls received on SaskTel’s network. That could be eclipsed during the pandemic.

Since mid-March when the COVID-19 crisis started to affect North America, SaskTel’s internet services have seen big increases as well. The fusion internet network usage is up 46 per cent, while their wireless LTE network is up 34 per cent and DSL/fibre optics networks have seen a 16 per cent increase.

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Mazenc expects those numbers to be even higher on Mother’s Day as well.

But even so, Mazenc doesn’t believe there will be any disruptions in their services, despite what could be the busiest day of the pandemic so far.

“There shouldn’t be a specific time that it matters if the system will be lagging or be slower,” Mazenc said. “We’ve been monitoring our network usage continually, just to make sure there’s adequate capacity there to handle the increased demand. So far, our systems have been working great.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW