University Giving Students Mobile Phones
from the cool,-but-will-anyone-use-it? dept
Marshall University is apparently the latest in a string of colleges and universities that have decided to drop landlines for their students. When students reach their dorms this fall, instead they’ll find mobile phones waiting for them. The University just build new dorms, and after noticing how hard mobile phone companies were competing to get (and keep) customers, officials decided to use that to their advantage. The students will pay $30/month for unlimited local and long distance (voicemail costs extra). The phones are handed out by the university (even if they already have their own) and must be handed back at the end of the year. Also, the phones will only work within thirty miles of the campus. The reporter also talks to other universities experimenting with similar programs or at least thinking about them. What I wonder, is how many students will come to campus with a mobile phone already in their pockets – and how likely are they to use the University issued ones?
