The hectic lifestyles and time constraints of students have transformed the cell phone, with its convenience and freedom, into a necessity.
Like most purchases, buying a cell phone should be approached with a level head and plenty of information on the plethora of cellular phone service providers. With some luck and perseverance, you can have a small marvel of modern technology in the palm of your hand.
While choosing a cell phone carrier, students should look at their calling habits because that will depict what plans they should be looking at, said Mary Reed, account manager for UNITS OSU Wireless.
“If you think that you’ll go over on your minutes, just buy the plan higher because it’s worth it to spend the extra money and have some minutes left over,” said Lauren Taxter, a junior in political science and user of Sprint’s family plan.
“You should ask yourself if you’re going to be traveling a lot or use the roaming or make long distance calls,” said Ali Ahmed, an employee of Wireless World at 1497 N. High St.
Aaron Bias, a freshmen in pre-med, is a Nextel subscriber with the $35 per month plan.
“Consider service area, because I know with my cell phone I have a lot of problems with not being in the service area a lot,” Bias said. “Also consider what minutes they have and when, because you don’t want a lot of night minutes that you’re never going to use. You want minutes that you can use during the day.”
Students who feel they must have a cell phone for the added convenience should compare the cost, coverage, fees, minutes, phones, and extras when looking at the multitude of plans available in the current market.
There are a wide variety of cell phone plans available by Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, VoiceStream, T-Mobil, AT&T and OSU Wireless, but students should not settle for the first plan they find. They should examine all available plans, then choose one that best meets their needs, while offering them the best value for their money.
OSU Wireless offers students with a current Sprint or Cingular plan the ability to receive a student discount by “migrating them at no charge to our services and they get the lower rate,” Reed said.
Also keep in mind whether the service is contracted through an agent or directly from the phone company.
“Through an agent and not directly through Cingular and Sprint we may not be able to migrate them over,” Reed said. “Students have choices and it’s not just one vendor that we are offering, it is two, and that gives them more plans and more options.”
Reed said parents like the OSU plan because they are dealing with UNITS through the university, and students do not have to deal with an outside vendor.
As with all plans, there are facets of the OSU plan that may not fit the needs of every student.
With the OSU plan, there is a stipulation that all contracts are for a two year duration. There is also a $150 cancellation fee that in the event of a student’s moving or graduating, UNITS will work with the vendor to transfer the account.
“You’ll probably be paying a little higher rate, but you have to go directly to the vendor because you are no longer associated with the university for the discount rate,” Reed said.
For phone accessories, Reed refers students to discount stores such as Best Buy, Odd Lots or Kroger.
OSU Wireless is currently testing and researching the feasibility of the 3G, or third generation, a cellular phone that sends pictures as cellular data, but it has “not been a big demand from students,” said Edward Quinn, business planning manager for UNITS OSU Wireless.
Miriam Dick is a senior in journalism. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
