Historically, the United States has lagged behind in adopting new technologies that may supersede more established systems. A great example of this is the laborious growth of cell phone usage in America. A few years ago, when other countries were enjoying robust cellular networks and next-generation phones, we were still stuck in the monochrome age. In recent years, it seems as if cell phones have finally become as ubiquitous in America as they are in many European and Asian countries. You need look no further than our campus for proof.

When I first came to the College four years ago, it wasn't unusual for someone to have a cell phone, but the majority of students had landline service as well. Reception was even worse back then (if you could imagine that), and it was simply useful to be on the College's phone network. Over the next few years, more students ended up getting cell phones and forgoing landline service, and the College was forced to rethink its relationship with Verizon, the provider of the student landline service. At the start of this school year students could still order Verizon wired service directly, but they lost many of the privileges that the College's previous relationship with Verizon once provided. Of course, this led even more students to choose wireless service exclusively.

While the situation is different for the rest of America, you can imagine that there are many factors driving landline users away from traditional phone service, the primary factor being the cost of long-distance service. Cell phones aren't the only option for disgruntled landline users; there's also "Voice over Internet Protocol" (VoIP) service that utilizes your broadband Internet connection and offers long-distance and local service at an incredibly low fee. While VoIP service does work on campus, I think cell phones are far more useful for young collegiate types, so I don't recommend that route. As it appears that the phone method of choice for students is now cellular, the College is doing its best to offer better support for cellular users. In the next few weeks, you will be able to fill out a survey and help the Information Technology department get a better idea of what cellular services people on campus are using. I urge anyone who has a cell phone to participate; the results of this survey will determine what phone service the College recommends for incoming students.

If you're looking to get a cell phone soon, I personally recommend Cingular. Cingular already has the best reception on campus, earlier night-time minutes and some excellent low-end plans. The company also recently joined forces with AT&T Wireless, which gives Cingular an expansive national network. I recommend Cingular wholeheartedly over the other services available in the area.

Where will cell phones go from here? With the success of camera phones, we should also be seeing phones that can capture video soon enough. Apple's recent collaboration with Motorola on their iTunes phone, the ROKR, is also telling of a new trend-music phones. Then there are more multi-functional devices, like the Treo or Blackberry, that offer phone, PDA and other capabilities. The biggest problem with any multifunctional device, however, especially one also serving the crucial function of a phone, is battery life. The Blackberrys have avoided this problem to an extent because they focus less on media functionality and more on business applications. The music phones, however, are ultimately useless without advances in battery technology. With most cell phones allowing only a few hours of talk time, you really wouldn't want to waste any of that by listening to music.

Better battery life will also allow future phones to take on all sorts of new functionality. We can expect cell phone networks to get much faster in the next few years, which will introduce the possibility of real-time video conferencing. While they are important now, we may end up finding cell phones even more necessary in the future. Let's just hope for improvement in cell phone etiquette as well.