UITS sells alternative to long-distance phone calls

Students strapped for cash can avoid long-distance telephone bills by purchasing phone cards now available through the University Information Technology Services support centers.\nBut in a campus where cell phones seem like a school supply staple, people might wonder why UITS started selling phone cards.\n"UITS is always looking for opportunities to provide more telephone and data services to housing residents and to students in general," said Melody Childs, manager of student residence support for UITS.\nPriced at $10 for 200 minutes, Childs said the cards "offer competitive rates when compared to other phone cards available from retail stores, and in particular, offer very low rates to international destinations."\nFreshman Andrea Tenorio explained that her parents called after her brother's football game to tell her how it went and that it's because of this tight family bond that she talks with her parents three times a day. \nSince Tenorio's parents live in Indianapolis, she doesn't want the communication to hike up her phone bill. Instead, she avoids long-distance charges by using phone cards. She buys her 670-minute cards at Sam's Club for $30 and said the phone cards from UITS wouldn't work for her. \n"I'd be done with that in a week," she said.\nSophomore Lauren Kaplan uses her cell phone to call long-distance on the weekends and after 9 p.m. but uses a phone card during the week if she's calling someone with a different cell phone provider.\nFor Kaplan, the cost isn't necessarily the deciding factor on whether she uses her cell phone or a phone card.\n"I have not fully been able to accept the technology of cell phones," Kaplan said. "I use them, but I don't necessarily love them."\nThe only disadvantage Kaplan sees with phone cards is the time it takes to make a call.\n"When you really want to talk to someone, it takes time going through the entire process," Kaplan said.\nIU affiliates, students, faculty or staff who want a phone card can purchase an unlimited amount from the Residential IT Services office in Teter Quad and at the UITS support centers in the Information Commons and Indiana Memorial Union, Childs said.\nSince the phone cards' debut during Freshman Orientation, about 250 have been sold. \n"There's really no deadline for purchasing the phone cards," Childs said. "We will keep selling them as long as there is an interest in this product."\n-- Contact staff writer Ashley Rhodebeck at arhodebe@indiana.edu.