Kinchla explained that many other colleges have been grappling with the costs of local phone service in an increasingly cellular age.

Dartmouth College recently switched from charging for local calls to providing free service to all students using mostly Voice over IP, an internet-based phone system that is cheaper than traditional lines. This move is not reasonable for Harvard, Kinchla said.

“There’s a big difference in terms of where you are,” Kinchla said. “If you are in a city with over a certain amount of population, then your local calls are counted and billed separately. If you are in an area below a certain population like [Hanover, N.H., Dartmouth’s location] then your local calls are included in the line.”

Dingman said that charging students for local calls was the policy Harvard used until a few years ago. In 2002, the College decided to include local, University and 800-number phone service costs as part of students’ termbills after an evaluation of the Harvard Student Telephone Office and its phone services.

“I think the key thing to emphasize is that this was always the students’ responsibility until two years ago,” Dingman said.

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Evan M. Vittor can be reached at evittor@fas.harvard.edu.