Starting next year, it is likely that all calls made from students' room phones, even to other on-campus phone numbers, will be considered local calls rather than on-campus calls. Currently, the student and faculty networks are integrated, so students only have to dial four digits to reach any other on-campus phone. However, under a proposed plan to separate the networks, students wishing to call the office of a professor, an administrative office, or Campus Police will have to dial a full seven digit number, rather than four.

"The College's administrative telephone service has, for decades, been provided under a separate contract from Verizon," said Director of Networking and Communication Steve Judycki. "While separate from a business perspective, the administrative and student telephone systems were ([and] will be until July 2004) functionally the same, allowing four-digit dialing between the two systems, and allowing the administrative voicemail service to be offered to students," he added.

According to Judycki, Verizon currently owns the network equipment that provides student dial-tones, but it will no longer supply this equipment to the College. To continue to keep faculty phone systems integrated with student service, the College would have to pay $400,000 to buy its own network equipment. "There's a large upfront cost to buying all the equipment necessary for maintaining the current network," said Dean of Students Ben Lieber.

Lieber said the College is unlikely to purchase the equipment necessary to integrate the student and faculty networks due to the immense decline in the number of students who order telephone service as a result of the rise in the use of cellular phones.

"Many students prefer to use cell phones [than use the local service]," said Lieber. "With the decline in usage of students it doesn't seem reasonable for the College to invest in purchasing this equipment," he said.

In addition to the network change that will force students to dial seven digits, students will no longer receive the free voicemail service from Verizon, which currently forwards missed calls to the College voicemail system. Under the new service plan, students will have to pay an extra charge for voicemail services and students will have to arrange for their own long-distance plans.

At last Monday's meeting of the Association of Amherst Students, which Lieber and Judycki attended, some students expressed concern with the fact that, under the new system, students will have to dial seven or ten digits rather than four in order to place emergency calls.

However, Lieber said that this is not a major concern. "Given that a lot of students are not signing up for the on-campus service, there are many students who already have to dial ten digits in order to be connected to the Campus Police through their cell phone," he said. "So it's hard to argue that dialing seven digits would be a significant compromise in security under those circumstances."

Verizon will most likely continue to serve as students' provider of local telephone service. Monthly phone costs should not change, according to Judycki.

"2004-05 student phone service will be almost indistinguishable from student phone service offered by Verizon today. Sign-up procedures, billing and repair services, installation and monthly cost, and the option of signing up with a separate long distance carrier are not expected to change. Subscribing to local phone service will continue to be voluntary," said Judycki. Students will remain responsible for their own bills.

"Students should only pay more money for local phone service in 2004-05 if they decide to subscribe to Verizon voicemail, assuming we can have this option added to the Verizon contract," he said. "We are not anticipating changes in rates charged to students by Verizon [for normal phone service]."

Judycki said that the new Verizon contract will most likely be a one-year agreement and should provide for the option of several one-year renewals.

Although the fee for normal service will not change, students are conscious of the monthly increase caused by ordering voicemail service. "I didn't set up long distance on my phone room this year, but the changes will keep me from getting a room phone next year, since I'm on a tight budget as it is," said Andrea Samuelson '07.

According to Judycki, students do not even utilize their free voicemail service. "[Voice mailboxes] currently hold over 2,200 new, unheard messages (6.5 hours worth) that are 30 days old or older (some are older than 90 days) and there are 31 mailboxes that will not accept new messages because they are full," he explained.

The current long distance carrier, ECCI, will discontinue their service as the College's long-distance provider. "ECCI is operating the Amherst account at a financial loss, and will not offer a contract for service next year," said Judycki. "ECCI's declining revenue is directly attributable to the success of cellular telephone industry. They are among the last of a dying breed of long distance service bureaus that saw much success in higher education through the 1980s and 90s," he added.

Judycki said he is not surprised by the decline in land-line subscriptions, especially the decline in the use of long-distance service on land-line telephones.

"Who can blame [people] for placing a so-called 'free' call on their cell phone, rather than incur a long distance charge on their land line? Eventually, some people begin to question the need for the land line at all," he said. "This is the reason that Verizon's student phone service subscriptions have dropped from 1,000 to about 650 in the past couple of years," he said.

Students have had a number of reactions to the proposed changes in phone service. "[The changes] wouldn't affect me, because I [use my cell phone] to call long distance to reach my friends, who all have cell phones," said Rachel Hoerger '06.

Ruth Baldwin '04 said she disapproves of the change because of its potential impact on academics. "[The change] discourages students from contacting professors who don't use e-mail," she said.

Lieber explained that including phone service in tuition is not an option. "Many schools that include local phone service within their regular overall fees do so by requiring all students to sign up for that college's or university's own long distance service," said Lieber. "Then the school will charge a premium on top of the actual cost of the long distance service to the school, and will use that money to subsidize the cost of the 'free' local service. We decided a long time ago not to go in that direction. Instead, Amherst has just passed on the costs directly from the phone company, with nothing extra added on."