| OCR Text |
Show Mountain Bell Expects Busy Day for I Tomorrow with Telephone Calling ; The busiest day of the year is rapidly approaching for I Mountain Bell, and arrange- ments to handle the expected record number of telephone . calls on Christmas Day are being made. ( "Over 650 Mountain Bell l employes throughout Utah t will be spending part of their Christmas day at work," Cliff ( Finch, local manager for the telephone company said. "Op- erators, central office person- j nel, repairmen and supervis- I ors will be working to connect j thousands of telephone calls." According to Finch, the vol- S ume of long distance calls 2 placed on Christmas Day runs many times the number plae- J ed on an average day. "This , means," he commented, "that completing calls without de- ; lay will depend on when and I how people place their calls." a Last year, the company handled 502,720 long distance i calls in Utah alone on the J holiday. i To help avoid disappoint- J ment in making Christmas calls, Finch offered the fol- ( lowing suggestions: 5 First, he urged telephone users to place their calls in ' the middle of the day, rather , than during the early morn- ing and evening hours, which j, are the two busiest times on J Christmas Day. I He also explained that cus- tomers can speed their calls j to their destination by direct ' dialing. High-speed switching equipment will automatically select the fastest route for ' direct-dialed calls and will i complete the call faster than ' an operator can inquire for i available circuits. j Utah telephone users may ; also use the Direct Dialing network to obtain a telephone j number in any city in the ; country by calling universal j directory assistance service. To use this service dial "1" ' plus 555-1212 for numbers j within Utah; or dial "1" plus :, the area code plus 555-1212 to j reach out-of-state directory assistance operators. ' Finch reminded customers i that lowest possible long dis- ; tance rates will apply thru- i out Christmas Eve and on ' Christmas Day, starting at 1 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 24, j and continuing until 5 p.m. -1 Sunday, Dec. 27. By dialing j direct on out-of-state calls, ' customers may call anywhere ; in the continental United Stat- i es (except Alaska), for as s little as 70 cents for the first J three minutes during this I period. J In France t At Salers in central France, J old-time tradition calls for a " king and queen to rule over Christmas festivities. Rulers ; pay for the privilege, since they are "elected" by bidding 5 at an auction held on the ? church steps. In Chile j Unique among Christmas customs in Chile is u grand . fiesta that centers around A horse racing. $ |
