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Show Telephone Bellson Christmas to Give Many Rings Telephone Bells will sound like Christmas Bells in many Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove homes as they announce an-nounce a happy greeting of "Hello, "Hel-lo, Mother!" "Hello Grandpa," "Merry Christmas" . . . from loved ones far away. "Over seven million people will be placing long distance calls on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to Mother or Aunt Mary, sisters or brothers," Ralph K. Ryan, manager here for the Mountain States Telephone Co., said today. Long distance telephone lines are always busy on Christmas, not because of the large number of calls placed, but rather because be-cause of the places called. More than seven million calls are completed com-pleted without delay almost every ev-ery business day throughout the Bell System, but most of these are from one metropolitan area to another. On Christmas, however, how-ever, most calls go to small communities com-munities throughout the nation. While there are hundreds of lines from Salt Lake, Ogden and Provo to larger cities of the country, coun-try, there are relatively few from there to the small rural communities commun-ities where Dad and Mother still live. There may be many unused circuits between the larger cities, but the few lines out to the small ' towns become overloaded and calls must wait their turn. "It would be impractical for the Telephone Companies to install in-stall hundreds of new lines to be used only one or two days of eaoh year," Ryan said. So we do the best we can by temporary rearrangements of circuits tCL complete as many calls as possible pos-sible without a delay. Ryan said that holiday calls can be completed more quickly if the persons placing them would call by number and call station-to-station. It takes extra time for the information operator in a distance city to look up the number num-ber or complete a person-to-person call. "Reduced long distance rates will go into effect at 6 pirn, on Christmas Eve and last throughout through-out Christmas Day and until 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 26th. While everyone every-one likes to take advantage of reduced rates, one of the surest ways of 'getting a call through during this busy time is to place It Christmas Eve before 6 o'clock even though it costs a little more. "A call on reduced rates Sunday, December 20, might be given consideration," Ryan said. |