College kids are using cell phones!?!?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-10-28-cellphones_x.htm
Hello?
I understand they’re using those new-fangled typewriter things too–whaddayacallem, computators or verb processors or whatever it is. And that “World Wide Net” thing, too.
Why wouldn’t they use mobile phones?
why is this is in the pit? big wow. everybody uses them. school children, students, everyone at work etc.
whats your point/gripe here cc?
I think his gripe is that it’s an incredibly OLD story that USA Today is just now running. It’s called irony.
Either that, or he’s a clueless git, and the irony’s all on me.
Well, here’s the problem.
Emphasis mine.
Seems to me the colleges are just bitter about losing money. Gotta get in on that “cell phone craze” and make some money before them damn kids move on to something else.
In other news, bear shit discovered in woods, Pope found to be Catholic.
In fairness to the article, there is actual recent news in it, regarding school-sponsored cell phone service plans. Colleges are trying to recoup losses in revenue 'cause students keep using those newfangled mobile cellular telephones instead of land lines.
so why dont they do what my old school did and get a nice big pay off from a mobile phone company for installing a big ass antenna on one of the buildings, for improved area coverage. granted, it was the highest point for a good few miles, but eveybodys losing money hand over fist cos everybodys gone mobile. ask BT how much they’re losing on public telephone kiosks.
its called progress. you’d think colleges would be on top of it. duh!
USA Today Quote:
This fall, for instance, Miami University began offering a plan, including an option that includes a free phone, which it negotiated with Cincinnati Bell Wireless. For $15 a month and a $25 set-up fee, students can get 300 anytime local minutes, plus 3-cents-a-minute rates beyond that. They also get features such as caller ID and voice mail. Long-distance charges out of the area range from eight to 12 cents a minute.
$15 is cheap but still sounds like a bad plan. You could double your bill with two long distant calls home (@.12 cents for two hours time). And I wouldn’t trust any cell phone company trying to make caller ID and voice mail sound like extra features. They are expected, at least to me, when you sign up. Maybe 5 years ago they were new special features. However it could be the writer making them seem like added features.
Hey, out of curiosity, if you had signed up for this plan and called my cell phone (assuming I was attending Miami Univ., OH) would you be charged a long distance call becasue my cell phone is from NYC? Or is it local because we are in the same local area? If is not a local call it would cost the long distant rate to call a friend at school who brought their own cell phone from home.
It just hit me funny that there would be this big revelation by USA Today that college students use cell phones. My God, those things have been ubiquitous gadgets for everyone from 15 to 40 years old for almost a decade now.
I’ve watched elementary school kids get off the bus and whip out their cell phones. That always cracks me up!! Funnier is how huge a Nextel phone looks clipped to the belt of a 6 year old!!
C’mon get with the times, it’s called the “Interweb”.
Oh, come on…
Here’s why the story is relevant (from the article linked above):
Hey, hey! My Alma Mater! Glad to see they’re up with the times and still capable of sticking it to their little Redsk – uh – RedHAWKS.
Just FYI: paulberserker has a very good point about the antenna, especially WRT Miami. After a recent campus tour, it became evident that cell reception is nearly impossible within the dorms.
The location of a cellular phone has no bearing on whether the call is long distance or not. Charges are based on the number you dial, not the physical location.
I’m not sure how the contracts work these days. But several years ago, when you signed up, you could use your phone in a local area for certain charge. If you leave that local area with your phone and want to use it, you had to have a roaming package. Roaming calls were more expensive of course. So it really depends on your specific contract.
Are you referring to the Cincinatti Bell Wireless plan?
Yes, yes, you get extra charges for making calls outside YOUR area. That’s roaming. Those are not LONG DISTANCE charges. They’re very different.
Let’s say you’re at home in southern California, and you call your friend’s cell phone with your land-line phone, on which you only have local service. This normally works, his cell is in the same southern California area code and normally a local call for you. Unbeknownst to you, he decided to take a trip to northern Maine. The call will go through. There won’t be any weird charges for you. Your phone company won’t track him down to figure out how to charge you long distance, because the NUMBER is local. Any extra charges that come from him being way, way out of his normal area will be HIS, not yours. If he calls some of his buddies in northern Maine while standing in their driveway, it’ll be long distance (because they’re in Maine and his number is a southern California number) AND roaming (because he’s out of his normally allowed area). If they call him while he’s in the driveway, same deal. Long distance charges for them, roaming charges for him. Make sense?
Mr. Cynical, I’m referring to cellular phones in general. No matter what the plan, the current physical location of the callee’s cellular phone does not make a difference in how much the caller is charged. The caller’s charges depend on where the caller is located if it’s a cell (home or roaming area) and whether the callee’s number is local or not.
So:
I am from New York, and have a cell phone with a New York Number.
I am currently in Cincinatti.
If I call, with my cell, my friend Tony’s land line, who lives down the street in Cincy, it is a long-distance call with no roaming.
If I call, with my cell, back to my Mama’s land line phone in New York, it’s a local call with roaming charges.