<p>My DD is going to college in a different city with a different area code. Is it worth it to get a cellular phone with the new area code? What do other kids are doing?
She wants to keep her current phone number to keep in touch with her HS friends but i am not sure if it would be weird for her new friends.
Thanks</p>
<p>D kept her cell phone number with our west coast area code while attending an east coast school no problems. :)</p>
<p>She definitely doesn’t need a new phone with a new area code. However, make sure you have a nation-wide cell phone plan.</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages (2003) my son’s school wanted the kids to have local numbers there so professors could contact them and not need to make a toll call. NOW everyone has a national plan, so that is not necessary.</p>
<p>In 2006 when DD went across the country, she just kept her same old number from here and it has never been a problem.</p>
<p>I would say…if you have a plan that does not have national coverage, you might want to look at getting one. I think most of the major carriers have that for all of their plans these days (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc).</p>
<p>Hardly anybody changes phone numbers.</p>
<p>and once any new numbers are programmed in to their phones, I doubt most kids even give it a second thought - for them, phone numbers are just 10-digit numbers instead of 7-digit numbers</p>
<p>My son, who is a graduate student in California, and my daughter, who goes to college in upstate New York, both have cell phones with Maryland numbers. These are their only phones – neither has a landline. The fact that they have numbers with out-of-state area codes makes no difference at all to their friends or anyone else.</p>
<p>What does make a difference, in some college communities, is which cell phone carrier you use. Outside of major metropolitan areas, there can be important differences in the quality of coverage between one company and another. Unless your daughter will be attending college in a major metropolitan area, where all companies have good coverage, it would be a good idea to go on the forum for her specific college and see what the students recommend in terms of cell phone carriers.</p>
<p>I did a post last month on specific college forum, and it seemed like Verizon (our family plan provider) was fine for Boston. We are about to have my son pick a new phone for college, so above info about area codes was also good news.</p>
<p>Although we think he’ll still need a text plan, we are considering adding Internet to his plan too. Any other related advise?</p>
<p>Yes, definitely get the UNLIMITED texting option. </p>
<p>He really doesn’t NEED a data plan. Is it really necessary for him to check his email every second of the day? Let him use his laptop for emails and internet.</p>
<p>No problem on the area code front – but I would get the unlimited text messages.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advise. Maybe we’ll start with just unlimited texts. (I think we already bumped it up from 250 to 500. I was stunned, but I really do love the fact that students are doing more texting and less calling; it is harder to resist a cell phone call while driving than a text which you can look at later.) </p>
<p>Then we can reconsider data plan after he spends time on campus.</p>
<p>**sorry for my previous post. Change HE to SHE, and HIM to HER :)</p>
<p>We live in the midwest; daughter is in college in the Boston area and kept her phone number.</p>
<p>Our new pastor is keeping her cell phone number with a different state’s area code; some of the older members are a little confused that they have to call an out-of-state number to reach her.</p>
<p>For kids these days, the area codes aren’t the local signifiers that they were for us old folks. It’s all the same to them.</p>
<p>I love looking at our cell phone bill now and seeing all the different “states” my daughter is calling. It means nothing to her, but I’m impressed with all the different places her friends are from.</p>
<p>This generation will probably never change their cell phone numbers unless they switch carriers. They will be able to keep in close touch with each other wherever they go!</p>
<p>734 = epic win!</p>
<p>I generally never notice the area codes… They’re all the same except for 734 which is better than all the rest.</p>
<p>Area codes definitely don’t matter to kids. They don’t ever actually know a number anyway–they dial from their phone’s list of contacts.</p>
<p>Heavily second the idea for UNLIMITED texts. One month at the bg. of his freshman year, my S had 6000 texts. I was wondering if he actually had enough time to attend class!</p>
<p>A few years ago one of mine was job-hunting and lots of the on-line profiles stated that only local applicants would be considered. He had an out of state area code and saw it as a non-issue since he had a local mailing address. I think hiring managers might have seen it differently. It took a while but he did get a job and only got a local area code phone when he found a better contract.
I think that’s the way of the future… most places require 9 number dialing now and so many phone plans make local or long distance unimportant, it’s not going to even be a question soon. (Too bad, I like knowing where someone is from by their area code… )</p>
<p>For a new student, go for unlimited texts until you find out their pattern of communication - might be cheaper for a different use. And, MOM lecture here, point out all the brain science behind interupted sleep and the need to not sleep with the phone under the pillow and answer 20 texts each night. This is starting to be a serious issue with sleep-deprived kids.</p>
<p>Not only is it best to have unlimited texts, but if you have an unlimited data plan, KEEP IT. These will be changing in the future, as Iphones, etc that allow watching movies and such burn up a lot of bandwith (if that is the right term). The current plans will be grandfathered in, but if you get a new AT&T plan, it will have different pricepoints for different amounts of data use.</p>
<p>Has anyone gotten a new Verizon plan recently? We replaced my son’s damaged phone on Saturday and were told that if we wanted text messaging, we had to get at least a limited data plan for $9.99/mo. I intend to call them tomorrow to see if that is correct. Texting is important but I don’t need to send/receive emails so I will keep my old phone if that is true.</p>