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College Students Turn Away From Landlines
prostoalex writes "You're as likely to find a landline in a college dorm as you're an old typewriter, according to this Washington Post article on MSNBC. While roughly 30% of college students had a cell phone 5 years ago, more than 90% have them today, resulting in student directories including out-of-state numbers instead of 4-digit extensions. More trivia on college students: 90% own a PC, 65% have broadband, 62% own a stereo system, 74% have a DVD player, 55% have a gaming system. What the Washington Post article also hints at, is possible tuition hikes due to the landlines dropped so quickly. "Six or seven years ago, telephones on campus were a cash cow," said Glenn Gaslin of Morrisville State College in New York."
I hate businesses that assume that you will buy certain services from them because they deem them 'essential', and when all of a sudden you don't, they jack up the price of the services you still do buy from them...
In this case, tuition will go up because they stop making money on landline sales??? How about my damned cable company (or phone company) that charges me an extra $10 a month because I just want a highspeed internet connection but don't want their cable offerings or long distance plan?
How can they get away with this BS? It's like those computer stores that 'cash discount' their prices... Play on words to get around rules that prevent them from jacking up the price because you wanna pay by credit card...
Aren't there laws against this sorta crap?
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
As technology moves on, there's not a lot else to be expected really. The cheap and widespread availability of wireless communication means that more students will be inevitably taking the easier option; who wants to be tied down while making a phone call?
To be frank, a change like this doesn't count as news, it's enevitable with evolving technology that things will change. This is just one of the many steps that are happening towards the much larger changes that are bound to come.
'"Six or seven years ago, telephones on campus were a cash cow," said Glenn Gaslin of Morrisville State College in New York.'
And here we see a basic problem. Trying to earn more than a fair return because you have monopoly power in a certain situation.
They should never have been a cash cow in the first place, just a service provided to students with a modest rate of return.
all the best,
drew
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
Why can't Universities run more programs at or near cost, rather than try to bilk as much money as possible out of people?
With most of the major carriers offering free minutes for calls between *any* of their customers (not just those on a family plan), is it any wonder that so many students are showing up with cellphones? I was expecting to see commentary about carriers linking up with campuses in advertising arrangements. I would expect Verizon and Cingular/AT&T to turn campuses into battlegrounds reminding everyone that all calls to any other user on their network is free all day, every day, encouraging the students to convince their friends to all use the same carrier.
I remember using the community phone in the dorm hallway 16 years ago. I'm shocked that practice went on for another 11 years!!
Intelligent Life on Earth
Why not have students get a University sponsored cell-phone with a few special features:
1. push-to-talk capability within Univ phones
2. free instant messaging within Univ phones.
3. Bluetooth and/or cable for internet access using the cell phone.
4. Free calling to/from a student's home town.(this would need a DID in student's home area code)
I'm sure there are more features that student's would love to have and be willing to pay for. Also, a cell phone company would love the contract to be the sole supplier to a college campus.
--Keith
The utility is to educate people like you about the :-)
free market and its possible offerings.
In USA there are regulations that keep the prices up.
Many people want to regulate the market.
We don't want that - We want freedom.
Free to Choose
I'm not a college student, but I'll shortly be giving up my landline too.. Why? Cost. I'm paying about $30.00 CDN/mo for a landline, and about $50.00 CDN/mo for my wireless. I make/get maybe 10 calls each month on the landline, where the wireless is about 10-fold that. Most of my landline calls are just people trying it before they call my cell. Also, my cell has caller ID, voicemail, and call waiting, plus the ability to send/get text messages and e-mail. My landline can't do that.... or it can do some if I pay more money. I'll pass.
Could the lack of landline phones in dorms be because of the busy life that college students live? Who has time to answer a landline phone in your own dorm room when you're getting drunk until 5 am and sleeping in a different person's bed every night?
Beyond that, dorm rooms are for sleeping and you certainly don't want some annoying phone ringing when you're there.
I'm a big tall mofo.
when almost every college has wired internet in every dorm, why would anybody pay for a campus phone? the only phone i'm planning on having next year is a $20 broadvoice plan, with unlimited calling in the US and any other country i might call.
by comparison, verizon starts at $40 for 450 minutes, sprint starts at $35 for 300 minutes, cingular starts at $30 for 200 minutes - and that one doesn't even come with unlimited mobile-to-mobile or nights and weekends, and t-mobile, low-cost stalwart starts at $20 for 60 minutes, or $40 for the slightly less spartan 600 minutes.
oh, and all of those plans charge for incoming minutes too.
sure, having a broadvoice phone means that i can't use it outside my dorm room. (in practice, i could buy a wi-fi phone for $100 that would allow me to use it anywhere on campus, but i'll leave that aside for now.) but what's the disadvantage in walking down the street talking to actual people standing next to me, as opposed to irritating everyone else who has to hear one side of my conversation and missing out on any number of chances to meet new people?
Universities have cell phone users
cell phone users need cell sites
cell phone companies pay money to let people house their cell sites.
so cell sites generate cash. Only problem is that cash probably does not go into telecommunications, and that that cow is more of a calf.
I'll bet the humiliation coming from that experience is a lot more effective than any harangue.
That's why he does it.
D
I spent a fortune in books in my first year.
By the second year I'd wised up that:
(a) most lecturers didn't even use the books, and those that did gave out photocopied notes.
(b) for homework purposes the library had several copies
(c) half the books were written or co-written by the lecturers an they were getting a cut.
So for the second year I bought no books at all. Didn't miss them.
I've gotten the impression that in many other countries college/university students are treated like grade schoolers are treated here, shut up, pay attention and do as you're told at all times...
Being a (soon to graduate) college student in the US, I can say that aside from one or two exceptions, I have never had a professor with that attitude. If you kept in mind that you're expected to practice some common courtesy, like stepping outside to take calls, and turning phones off during exams, things were just fine.
Which countries/schools did you study in where you found it to be otherwise?
My advice...stay away from credit cards except for absolute emergencies. Accepting a credit card these days is like shackling yourself and giving them the key.
Or you can just pay off your balance every month, which means you don't pay interest, but do get some level of fraud protection and often cash back.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
And that means less interference with wireless networks.
When I was a college student, my PC was my stereo, DVD player, and gaming system, and now it's my television as well. I've never tried VOIP, but it could be my phone someday, too.
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
What competition?? I have exactly *one* choice if I want cable TV, or broadband internet. I can go w/ dial-up access, or satellite, but that isn't really the same thing as competition for cable, just like a private limosine (sp?) company is not really competition for a taxi service.
Besides, the point is the government is already involved in this market. My tax $$ subsidized the building of the infrastructure these companies are now gouging me to use. I didn't volunteer this money, nor receive anything in exchange for it. The government took it from me, with the implied threat of harm if I refuse to give it, then gave this $$ to telecommunication companies w/o my permission or consent.
In the US, there is plenty of socialism for CORPORATIONS, there is just very little government subsidization of private citizens.
For the full unshowered *nix treatment, I'd choose Berkeley before Cal Tech.