Phones Explained
Within America, local phone calls are free. However long distance calls require a calling card.  All MIT bedrooms have a live phone point and most also come with a phone (line rental is automatically included in your rent, so no free lunch here!).
Cross Campus Calling
If you are calling across campus you only need to dial the last 5 digits of the phone number.
Calling off Campus
To make a phone call to a number off campus you need to dial 9 before dialling the full phone number.
ET’s Guide to Phoning Home:
1)    Buy an international phone card from LaVerdes. The pioneer CMI batch recommends these cards as they are good value for money – no connection fee and 3 pence per minute calls to Britain.
2)    Scratch the panel on the back of the card to reveal your pin number.
3)    Dial the local phone number on the back of the card and listen to the instructions.
4)    When requested, dial the destination number. Remember the code to call Britain is ‘01144’ not ‘0044’ and you must drop the first zero of the area code e.g. 01144 1223 501502
Mobile Phones
Mobile (cell) phones are not as common at MIT as they are at Cambridge and it is quite possible to go through the year without one as most MIT dorms and living groups provide a landline connection. There are also a number of pay phones on campus (50¢ per call).  That said, many rooms are shared and it is nice to be able to call home whenever you want and to have your own answer-phone.
Using your British mobile phone in the US is not recommended.  They have a different network system that needs the more expensive tri-band phones.
The best way to check if your phone will work is to ask your British network customer service department, when you call them to activate international roaming on your account.  But even if this does work the overseas call charges are extremely high (about 70p /min for calls to the UK and £1 /min for calls within the US) so you'd only want to use your mobile in emergencies.
The best solution is to wait until you arrive and then sign on with an American network if you need to.  There are a couple of cell-phone dealerships in the Galleria mall.  For example, a pay-as-you-go phone (they call it EasySpeak) from Voice Stream (one of the best) will set you back $80 for a phone handset and SIM card and then about $25 /month for top-up cards. Constantly reminding yourself to buy top-up cards can be irritating, but it is probably the best deal as you will only be in the US for a short time and you won't need to remember to cancel the contract at the end of the year or pay for months like December/January when you may well be in the UK.
Unfortunately, British networks lock their handsets so that they will only work with SIM cards from the same network. If you can get it unlocked, all is well and good, but otherwise you will also need to buy the American handset too.  Remember that US networks count both incoming and outgoing calls but otherwise the terms and services available are pretty much what you'd expect.  Cell phones also work with international phone cards allowing you to avoid the high international connection rates payable if you directly dial the UK from one.

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