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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 have not met one person here (University of Minneapolis) who does not own a PC. I also have not met anyone else here who runs an OS other than Windows.
In the UK, this has been the case for years. When I moved into Halls, there wasn't even a land-line phone available.
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.
I'm a freshman at BU and on a floor of 45 students, there is ONE landline (owned by a non-US student), everyone has computers - and a few of us have more than one. There is roughly a 5:1 windows to Mac ratio... although it's a little squewed because a couple of us have desktops and powerbooks. Everyone, unless they're non-US residents, has cell phones. Over 50% of us have iPods, use iTunes and share music. Yeah, we're hardware-laden students... and I love it!
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.
except when one rings during my lecture.
... for the rest of the semester, at least.
Never fails, despite warnings to the contrary. So I INSIST that they take the call -- right then, right there. I see a few others stealthily reaching into their backpacks to turn theirs off.
I don't have any problems
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
'"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
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
Take my wife & I as an example.. We had 2 landlines here in our house. One was ours, the other is paid for by my company (I work from home). During a 2 month period, our home phone got shut off no less than 5 times. And before you start to think it - no, we paid the bill each month, on time. Each call to Verizon customer service was greeted with an endless sea of automated menus to troubleshoot your line. Thankfully, you can keep mashing down the 0 key to get a human on the phone.
Each time this happened, we were told that we could expect to see a technician at our house in some ridiculous amount of time, usually 3-8 days. Then, mysteriously, the line would start working again. The explanation was always some inane excuse like, "someone unplugged your line at the CO" or "we had a mux that failed". We complained about rotten service to CS reps, Supervisors, Supervisors of Supervisors, and even to the office of Ivan Seidenberg (the CEO of Verizon for those who don't know). Know where it got us? Nowhere, fast.
Tired of the crap, we voted with our feet. We were spending about $50 a month for the Verizon line, plus about another $35 for my wife's mobile. We popped over to the Cingular store and got a couple of phones on a family plan. I got a new number and we ported the home phone number over to the wife's mobile. Now our phones cost about $65 a month. We can call any Cingular customer (now including AT&T Wireless users) for free, have free nights & weekends, 850 min/mo and rollover. No coverage problems around here, and it all "just works".
And hey, if you decide to do something like this - make sure you port to a carrier OTHER than Verizon Wireless. That is, if you're doing it because you're sick of Verizon. Otherwise, if you're happy with them, do whatever you feel like.
The unsig!
Glanced the headline briefly, and thought that university administrator were getting desperate for methods to keep college students on campus.
Here in Michigan (MSU), they provide landlines for free to students in the dorms. If you ask for a phone they will even give you that. Also, does TFA assume that if you have a cell phone that you don't have a landline? Cable TV is also provided for free to those who live in the dorms. I know they aren't technically "free" but you don't pay extra so you're a fool not to use either service.
Hey! Verizon Landline is totally separate from Verizon Wireless. They don't have a single person working for them in common AFAIK. They are owned by some of the same people, but just because Verizon landline is a bunch of rotten asshats, don't lump us in with them.
Disclaimer: I work for Verizon Wireless
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.