The Foreign Service Journal, June 2008

J U N E 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 73 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT month without running into sur- charges for going over the limit. The same thing is true for text messaging. Kids can and will text their friends for everything. If you give them the capa- bility to send text messages interna- tionally, you may find that you, too, will hear from them more often! If you are signing up for a new ser- vice, you might want to investigate whether there is a carrier with a dis- count for students. Another important factor is the coverage offered by the various providers. In some rural areas, where many colleges and universities are located, the shortage of repeater towers means frustratingly weak sig- nals. For those with access to an IVG line, calls to (703), (202) and (301) area codes are free, so one might want to consider a cell phone with one of those numbers. But what kind of cell phone should it be? Some kids travel with two