The Christmas season is always a busy time for SaskTel, and the phone company is preparing for an even busier Christmas this year.

     Andy Tate with SaskTel Media Relations says they expect that 820,000 long-distance phone calls will be made on Christmas Day, which is a 3 percent increase over Christmas last year.  He says that about 45 percent of those calls will go to locations within Saskatchewan, about 51 percent to Canadian destinations outside of Saskatchewan, and 4 percent will go to the United States and overseas.

     Tate adds that customers can avoid network congestion by placing calls outside the peak calling times of 10:00am to 2:00pm, and from 7:00pm to 10:00pm.  Also, customers should make direct-dialled calls instead of going through the operator, verify the number they want to call, and take time zones into consideration.