Our S has learned to make his cell phone calls from his room in Bancroft while he is as near to the window as possible. He is on AT&T and if he is near the window, coverage is fine.
Bancroft Hall is basically a nuclear bunker and serves as a problem for ALL carriers. There is no single carrier that has figured out how to penetrate the walls with any kind of consistency.
Mostly, reception is going to depend on the
location of your midshipman's room. For instance, if he/she has an exterior room that is unobstructed, they should get fairly decent reception.
I have two mids. One has an exterior room in the 8th wing that faces the Chesapeake. He has fine reception. The other has a 5th wing room that is completely surrounded. He doesn't even try.
Text messages usually get through regardless of their location.
We have a family agreement that whenever we are on our computers, we
always have a gmail window opened. Since we all have gmail addresses, it allows us to chat (or
video chat) at any time. That is our primary means of communication.
A lot of people use Facebook chat.
For the most part, midshipmen go
outside to use their cellphones. It's not uncommon to see them standing on the outdoor walkways just to get good reception.
I recommend you come up with a scheme to use the INTERNET for communication. There are many options in that area and, since the mids almost
always have their computers continuously online, that will usually give you instant access to them, and vice versa.