Every year on Mother’s Day, telephone companies experience extremely higher volumes of traffic than most Sundays. While it would have been long-distance phone calls in the past, as times have changed, so have the methods of communications.  

“We have seen a trend shift away from voice calls and more towards applications that use data, and that just isn’t on Mother’s Day,” explained Lindsay Mazenc, a spokesperson for SaskTel. The decrease in voice calls is also attributed to the reduction in the number of landlines in use across the province. 

In 2020, compared to an average Sunday, more than 560,000 more text messages were sent and over a million received.  

“There definitely is that spike on Mother’s Day, but again we’re seeing it more not on the traditional voice calling, but the text messages being sent or the data being used,” Mazenc added. 

Sasktel is anticipating similar numbers this year as public health orders surrounding COVID-19 remain in place.