AU will use student cell phones as the primary phone service in the residence halls by September 2005 in order to save the University money, according to Carl Whitman, executive director of e-operations.
"I want 100 percent of residence hall users to go to cell phones," Whitman told The Washington Post. "This would save hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating costs such as equipment, maintenance and other such costs."
Under the plan, the students will have a University phone number that others will be able to dial, and the call would forward to their cell phone, Whitman said.
For example, most on-campus AU students have a cell phone number as well as a landline phone number with the exchange 885. After the new system is implemented, a call to an 885 number will be forwarded to the student's cell phone.
The new plan is underway due to the new Federal Communications Commission rule allowing cell phone users to have "number portability." This allows cell phone users to move their existing cell phone number over to a new carrier in the event the user changes his cell phone service carrier, which would essentially allow to move their landline phone numbers over to their cell phones.
Despite the rule, the University is limited to the previously mentioned "number association," since AU residents are not technically considered residents in the view of the FCC, Whitman said. Because students enter into a business relationship with the University by making payments, the FCC rules would not allow for business numbers to be transferred to residence telephones.
The new system is part of the overall University wireless project, according to Whitman. He said the new phone system is beneficial to the University because of the maturity of technology over the past years and that the University is implementing it for various reasons including financial ones.
"We want to be ahead of the rest of the universities," Whitman said, commenting on the desire to stay ahead technologically.
The decision by the University is influenced by the fact that 90 percent of incoming freshman own cell phones, Whitman said. As of yet, there has been no opposition to this plan, but much of the details have not been publicized until now.
As part of this new system, AU conducted a pilot program in Hughes Hall over the past two years. The University wants to conduct a poll, through the admissions application, on applicants preference of whether they want to primarily use a cell phone or a landline phone for their main residence use, Whitman said.
"I think it's a good idea," sophomore Christine Galanti said, "the school should make it easy and inexpensive to get phones."
One concern the University will be dealing with is how the emergency phone system will work, Whitman said. Currently, when students use their land phones to dial 911, the call is answered by the District's 911 system, Whitman said. Under the new cell phone system, it is unclear whether the cell phones will be programmed to connect to the D.C. metro 911 system or to the AU Public Safety emergency line, when 911 is dialed from an AU student cell phone.
Another issue the University is considering in its plans is when students use their cell phone for personal items and use their room phone for university related business, according to Whitman. Many students only give out their cell phone number to friends and family and give their landline number out for business use.
"I think the cell phone is my personal phone and I don't want school officials calling my cell phone," sophomore Eric Wallace said.
Addressing that issue, Whitman said the University will be taking this issue and others into consideration when working out the details of the planned cell phone system.
It is unclear whether there will be reliability issues when the cell phone system is running, Whitman said.
Despite this, the University will be encouraging students to use Cingular Wireless or T-Mobile cell phone service since the school currently has a program with those companies to provide cell phone service in the residence halls, Whitman said.
Under the arrangement between AU and the two service providers, students would be able to get 10 percent discounts on their monthly bills, according to Whitman.
Currently, T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless pay the University for rental space in order to house their cellular equipment, Whitman also said.
Concerning current AT&T Wireless customers, Cingular is currently trying to buy AT&T Wireless, according to The Boston Globe. If Cingular buys AT&T Wireless, then all AT&T customers would be absorbed into Cingular's service, Whitman said.
As a result of this, current AU students who use AT&T Wireless as their wireless provider, would be able to get the financial benefits that Cingular is currently giving it's customers, Whitman said.
Another issue being discussed is whether AU students who have carriers such as Sprint, Nextel or Verizon Wireless would be able to switch to the AU-associated carriers without paying the standard early contract termination fee charged by cellular service providers.
A possibility for students who switch to the AU-associated carriers is whether the new carrier would pay the early termination fee being charged by the carrier they are leaving. According to Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson, doing this is illegal according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's anti-trust legislation.
