With Cell Use Soaring, Schools Change Student Phone Offers

The WSJ reports on how colleges and universities are losing revenue from long-distance phone charges in dorm rooms as students increasingly favor cellphones.

"For decades, colleges and universities contracted with long-distance providers to offer phone service in dorm rooms and then marked up the cost. A school, for example, would purchase wholesale long distance from a carrier for five cents a minute and charge students 12 cents a minute for use.

In recent years, though, colleges have watched students abandon their dorm phones in favor of cellular phones. Now, many schools have learned their lesson: They're changing their phone habits, too.

Some schools are revamping their long-distance offerings, while others are pushing cellphone service themselves, hoping commissions or discounts on the phones they provide employees will make up for some of their lost revenue from long-distance sales".

emily | 5:11 PM | SMS and Students |
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