Cutting the wire at college

Wired News has posted an article on the growing number of colleges replacing student landlines with mobile phones.

The article notes:

With nine out of 10 college students carrying cell phones — and many of them using traditional landline phones rarely or not at all — schools are seeking ways to maintain a line of communication while deploying technologies they believe students want and need.

Some colleges are abandoning the wires and phone jacks in their dormitories. Many of those systems, formerly a source of extra revenue for institutions, now operate at a loss.

As a replacement, some are introducing their own cellular services and handsets customized to connect students with campus services and information, while adding security and instructional tools.

Some of the new services enabled by and for an all-mobile student body are compelling. At Montclair, for instance:

Students can use the phones to get real-time alerts and information from the university, check class assignments, learn about specials at campus restaurants, or track the location of school shuttle buses through Global Positioning System technology.

There are a great many corporate services and sites (internal company portals especially) which should be available on every employee’s cell phone but aren’t properly mobilized yet.  I wonder how long it will be until the average business does for its workforce what universities are doing now for students?  Or is that what students are doing for universities?

[Tip o’ the hat to Engadget Mobile for the story link and Moto-Belushi]