Show Christmas is busy time for telephone companies Christmas traditionally the busiest day of the year for a certain portly while haired gentleman with a retinue of reindeer is also the busiest day for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company The Christmas holiday at al AT and T means means' a substantial increase in the number of calls made and a a major major shift in customer calling g habitS MOUNTAIN BELL DELL predicts that Christmas customers willm will m make ke a record total of about aboul million interstate calls this year Of these about will be made to lo to overseas locations and that's twice the number of oC overseas calls made on an m average business business' day according to lo Kenneth Kennelh 0 O Hill Utah Ulah Public Relations Manager To meet demands of such a busy day the Bell System will add about aboul circuits to the telephone network and have thousands of employees working to lo complete as many calls as possible But Bul quantity alone is not nol the only change in calling patterns which are watched closely byBell byBell by byBell Bell System network managers who scan worldwide traffic flow and when necessary channel calls along along alternate routes On holidays said Hill most people call from Crom their suburban or rural homes and nd diverge from normal business day calling which is heaviest between metropolitan areas These holiday calls which also last about aboul twice as long as an average business message message cause heavy traffic on normally low volume routes |