I-Phone

We got our son a cell phone to use after Beast, but he rarely uses it unless traveling. Each cadet will have use of their own personal landline phone in their barracks room - unlimited long distance -for a set one-time fee. My son says this is "monopoly money", or money you will never see anyway! :smile: The reception is always good, so there is no need to hang out the window to talk to someone. He almost always called us on that phone during the academic year. As far as the I-Phone, I am not into latest technology, so I don't know if there would be that many advantages over a regular service cell phone if it is to be used primarily for making calls while traveling. But then again, my kiddo listens to all his music on his computer. We got him an IPod for graduation a year ago that he has yet to use.....
 
anonagron said:
We got our son a cell phone to use after Beast, but he rarely uses it unless traveling. Each cadet will have use of their own personal landline phone in their barracks room - unlimited long distance -for a set one-time fee. My son says this is "monopoly money", or money you will never see anyway! :smile: The reception is always good, so there is no need to hang out the window to talk to someone. He almost always called us on that phone during the academic year. As far as the I-Phone, I am not into latest technology, so I don't know if there would be that many advantages over a regular service cell phone if it is to be used primarily for making calls while traveling. But then again, my kiddo listens to all his music on his computer. We got him an IPod for graduation a year ago that he has yet to use.....
Click to expand...


Well signal depends on the service, which one does your son have?
 
He has Verizon/Alltel, but that doesn't really matter. The determining factor seems to be which barracks you are in - some can get reception just fine with one service in one barracks and horrible reception with the same service in another area of a different barracks. It also seems to depend on which side of the hall your room is on and whether you are on top or bottom floor. We have compared notes with many other parents and cadets, and their experience all seems to be similar to ours.
 
Somewhere on those forums, someone said that their child set their phone in the window and wore a Bluetooth around the room so they could do other things while on the phone. Does that sound like a good idea?

Thanks for the info on iPhone use. Regardless, I don't think we are going to be able to pry that phone away from him, so it looks like we will be bringing it to A-Day !
 
Buff81, we had heard the same idea about the Bluetooth and cell on the window ledge...we bought the Bluetooth and took on A-Day when we delivered the cell phone, but our cadet brought it home at graduation and said he never did use it.

I think it all depends on your cadet's habits and needs. If he/she is used to multi-tasking and wants to talk and shine shoes at the same time, it would probably work very well for them. On the other hand, if they like to sit and relax while they are talking, the landline or handheld phone will be adequate.

I will interject one more little tidbit here -- we have never had cell phone texting plans as the cells we carry are on a company plan for a small business. We found there were times that our son wanted to converse privately out of earshot of roommates and since there are often three cadets to a room there is not always a lot of privacy. Since we don't send and receive text messages on the phone, we IM'd a lot via computer. When he needed to hear our voice and he did not care if anyone overheard, the option of calling was still there.

With all this in mind, I would recommend your phone-options decision be based soley on the individual habits and needs of your own cadet and their need/desire for more private conversations. Personally speaking, if I were choosing any option and price were not an issue, I still doubt I would pick the I-Phone just b/c it is not something I think my cadet would be as likely to make full use of. However, for cadets who use them now the way mine uses the laptop... go for what they will be most likely to use! :biggrin:
 
"Each Cadet will have their own personal landline phone?!" Geez, either the Corps has or I'm getting old (or both!). Back in the old Corps (when men were men and dinosaurs roamed the Plain) only select Cadets on Regimental or Brigade staff had a phone and it sure didn't come with unlimited long distance. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest!
 
Dadandgrad, you just made me giggle! My rising Yuk said one of his instructors said the same thing about the landline phones! :shake:
 
America's Finest - the problem is not with the cell service but the construction of the buildings at West Point. The massive granite structures can be a barrier.
AT&T, Verizon and other major carriers work fine for the most part. Some barracks get better reception than others.
Most cell phones these days have music capabilities - the I-phone is not an issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top