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New service will keep USF students connected

Starting in January, students will be able get college news via their cell phones.

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published October 7, 2005

College students and cell phones are inseparable. For Rodger Desai, the combination makes for a business opportunity.

"This is becoming the primary way they want to communicate and manage their lives," said Desai, president and chief executive of Rave Wireless.

The New York startup company (www.ravewireless.com) is offering a service aimed specifically at college students, including those at the University of South Florida, to provide what Desai calls timely and local information.

Using "channels" of information, students can receive news about campus activities, check to see how far buses are from their stop, peruse the menu at campus cafeterias and get updated assignments and notes about their classes. They also can set up their own social groups (one at Montclair State University in New Jersey is called "Bored in the dorms").

Rave kicked off its service at Montclair recently and has deals with at least seven other New York-area schools, as well as USF, which will go live in January.

The schools pay an undisclosed licensing fee to Rave and typically provide the service free to students. Desai says the fee is based on a school's size, not the number of students who sign up.

The service will work with phones on any carrier, though Rave so far has signed a deal with Sprint-Nextel. Montclair gives students some voice minutes with the service, and they can purchase additional minutes and data services. Montclair is giving free phones to incoming freshmen, but USF has no plans to give away phones.

At USF, Rave will complement the school's 3-year-old MoBull service, which sends text messages to students' phones about campus events, registration and electronic coupons from advertisers.

While MoBull has proved popular with students, with more than 9,000 participating, it has not generated the kind of advertising money USF officials initially thought it could.

"We found that vendors weren't willing to spend money on it," said Christopher Akin, assistant director of information technologies at USF. "I don't think it was a familiar enough advertising method."

Rave will be free for students at USF, but will offer more information and technical enhancements than the school could provide through MoBull. Students will need phones capable of handling Internet connections.

"What I think Rave is going to do is add some value to communications and community here on campus," Akin said.

Rave approached USF for the deal because it had heard of the school's program. Desai says it will be used as a starting point to reach out to other schools in the area and throughout Florida, possibly by next fall.

If that sounds fast, consider that Rave launched in fall 2004, then studied how students used cell phones beyond talking, set up a pilot project at Montclair and then got the service up and running.

Among things that struck Desai: Landline use in university dormitories has plummeted in the last five years. According to Desai, 1,400 students at Montclair use the service, and about 80 percent of the 300 channels have been used.

Desai, 32, who is described as an Internet veteran and serial entrepreneur, says unlike some technology adoption that is driven by business use, students are driving the cell phone market.

A study by M:Metrics showed that college students with jobs are 42 percent more likely to use their phone for e-mail than an average subscriber.

Said Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst at M:Metrics, in a release: "In terms of mobile content and services, it's the students that are taking their parents to school."

-- Information from Times wires was used in this report. Dave Gussow can be reached at dgussow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4165.

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 18:23:02]