SaskTel prepared for large data usage during Christmas

With it being a different Christmas in 2020, Sasktel is expecting a lot of people to connect virtually.

The crown corporation has waived data overage charges from Dec. 17 to Jan. 11, allowing people to not have to worry about paying extra to talk to their families and friends.

“We’ve seen an increase of our wireless data downloads increase by 40 per cent so that’s quite a substantial increase,” said Lindsay Mazenc, external communications manager with SaskTel. “When we’re talking voice calls, we’re not seeing the increases like we used to because everyone has transitioned over to that data usage with Zoom or Facetime.”

SaskTel saw around 200 terabytes of data go across its mobile network on Dec. 19, a single-day record. They could see more than that on Christmas.

“I fully anticipate that it should but you never know. I really hope that people are being safe and following the rules. Time will tell,” Mazenc said.

Mazenc said SaskTel’s network has been able to handle the extra workload thanks to $1.4 billion in improvements over the last few years.