Across the nation, more and more Americans are going exclusively cellular and opting to dispense with their landline phones - and Brown students are no exception.
Landline usage on campus has declined so markedly that Computing and Information Services now only activates students' landline voicemail boxes by request, not automatically.
"In previous years, we would pre-provision voicemail accounts for every student, but because usage decreased so drastically, (accounts) are now only activated by request," said Timothy Thorp, manager of communications and education at CIS.
In the 2005-2006 academic year, students made 31,617 calls from dorm phones, and 1,500 students activated voicemail accounts. Just a year later, only 900 students bothered to activate their voicemail accounts, and only 12,075 calls were made from landlines, according to Denise Wynne, customer support manager for telecommunications at CIS.
So far this year, Wynne said that only 230 students have activated landline voicemail accounts.
Another sign of the wireless times is Brown's recent request that all students provide the University with their cell phone numbers so that they can be contacted in the event of an emergency, part of the University's new emergency alert system.
Nationally, the wireless trend is less dramatic. The number of households with a landline telephone dropped to 94.1 percent in 2003 - down 2.1 percent from 1998, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In the same period, the percentage of households with cellular phone service doubled - rising from 36.3 percent in 1998 to 62.8 percent in 2003.
As improvements in cell phone technology have lead to better reception and smaller devices, and expanded service has brought lower costs and overall greater connectivity, cell phones are not just more convenient than landlines but more affordable as well. Free mobile-to-mobile and nighttime calling, rollover minutes and text messaging make having a cell phone more cost-effective, students said.
"My landline is connected, but I never use landlines to make off-campus or long distance calls because I would have to use phone cards, and that just doesn't make any sense," said Carl Dickerson '08, who described his cell phone plan as "excellent." Dickerson does not have an activated campus landline voicemail.
Thorp echoed Dickerson's sentiment. "That's the nature of cell phones, you can call anywhere at the same rate," he said.
But convenience and portability aside, cell phones cannot compete with landlines when it comes to overall connection quality - especially on College Hill.
"I have Sprint, therefore I need to use my landline," said Adrienne Allen '08, referring to Sprint's less-than-stellar quality service on Brown's campus. "But I don't know (phone) numbers by heart, and I wouldn't use the phone to call room to room," she said.
Fellow Sprint user Stephanie Tan-Torres '08 also has a landline. "Sometimes I don't get great service in my apartment, and it's free to call campus phones and local numbers," she said by way of explanation.
But for the most part, students do not see the need to connect their landlines if they have cell phones. Rebecca Williams '09, a cell phone user, said her hectic schedule makes a landline impractical. "I'm not in my room enough to make it worthwhile," she said.
"My roommate has a landline, but I don't use it because I have a cell phone," said Sam Koplewicz '11.
Some students said Internet-based options such as Skype and voice-over-networks like Vonage are becoming increasingly popular because they provide quality service for little or no cost. Shyam Sundaram '08, who lives off-campus and does not have a connected landline, said he uses Skype, which allows users to use their computer to connect to other computers, landlines and cell phones.
"Having a landline is not convenient, since I'm hardly in the apartment," he said. "I use Skype to make calls, and Skype along with cheap cell phone service make landlines unnecessary."
Thorp agreed, calling this shift a "big trend."
As Brown students overwhelmingly choose cell phones and Skype over landlines, the dorm phone might just be destined for obsolescence - that is, in any residence hall where the reception is good.
