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Colleges Removing Student Landline Phone Services

by Amar Toor on August 11, 2010 at 02:45 PM

landline telephone It may have taken some time, but universities across the country seem to be finally coming to terms with the death of the landline. Last week, the University of Virginia removed around 3,850 phones from dorms across its Charlottesville campus in a move that school officials claim will save $500,000 per year. In the last few years, carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have also expanded cell phone campus coverage, making UVA's decision to abandon landlines more appealing. "Students may still request a land-line telephone, but I don't anticipate that a lot will," reads a statement from chief housing officer Mark Doherty. "Over the past several years, land-line use has decreased a lot."

Virginia isn't the only school slashing landline services from its budget. The University of Kentucky began snipping its cords back in 2008, and the University of South Dakota discontinued its service last winter. Others, meanwhile, are sticking with landlines, albeit for varying reasons. A spokeswoman for Princeton University, for example, told the Wall Street Journal that the school wouldn't be eliminating its self-run landline service, since the infrastructure is "already in place." Virginia Tech is similarly reluctant to do away with traditional phones, in light of a deadly 2007 shooting incident at the school, during which many students were unable to obtain a wireless signal.

UVA officials have claimed that students will still have access to hallway and staff-area phones, which they can use in case of emergency -- although that's probably the only justifiable reason to keep them around. While $500,000 may seem like pocket change when compared to the endowments that most big colleges keep hidden under their mattresses, it's a pretty handsome return for simply unplugging a few thousand phones. Perhaps that money can go toward something that will truly benefit students, instead of going toward a device that most of today's collegians probably don't even remember using. [From: Wall Street Journal]

Tags: CellPhones, college, Colleges, education, landline, money, princeton, telephone, UniversityOfKentucky, UniversityOfSouthDakota, UniversityOfVirginia, UVA, VirginiaTech

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