When first-year Nina W. Kang realised she would be leaving Taiwan to attend Harvard, it seemed she would have to abandon her dinnertime ritual of sharing the day's events with her family. Calling home, Kang says, is an expensive affair.

"It costs about US$15 for 10 minutes," Kang says.

Immediately after her graduation from Taiwan American School, Kang's parents subscribed to Compuserve, a global online service. Now, Kang says she "talks" to her parents twice a day over the Internet.

"They e-mail me and I e-mail them and we talk about how our day went," says Kang.

For many international students at Harvard, the Internet is a quick and convenient means of staying in touch with far away family and friends. Maintaining contact with scattered pals is simpler in cyberspace, where costly postage and long distance service are not at issue, say several undergraduates.

"It's definitely easier to keep in touch--[e-mail] is free, and it's fast; airmail takes a week at least," says Indonesian student Michael Sosanto '95, who regularly e-mails his friends from junior high.

"There's no way to afford phone calls to my friends," says Zimran D. Ahmed '98, who e-mails his high school friends from Dubai college in the United Arab Emirates several times a week.

"Some of them are in universities in the U.S. and some are in the U.K.," he says.

"E-mail is cheaper, you don't need to get stamps or envelopes," Ahmed adds.

"It's also quick. When you write a letter there's sometimes more room so you have to fill it up and spend more time. With e-mail, you can just dash off a couple of lines and send it off," Ahmed says.

A New World of Communication

Internet users at Harvard say communications technology is growing by leaps and bounds. Although access to the net is available free to Harvard's users, those outside of the University community wishing to access the net may have to subscribe to an Internet provider.

"Using the Internet is causing a whole new way of thinking about the cost of communication," say Jeff C. Tarr '96, co-president of Digitas, a Harvard student computer organization.

Internet users in other countries say the cost of subscribing to an Internet provider is hardly prohibitive.

Peeter Rebane '95 says his borther in Estonia pays about $70 U.S. dollars or $700 Estonian kronas each month for access through an institute of cybernetics.