Consider how much easier the lives of Quinnipiac students would be if they were able to receive alerts announcing snow days and other important information right to their cell phones.

Imagine being able to track the shuttle by GPS so as to estimate whether it will arrive early or late to campus. Envision having school e-mail, flashcards and polling on one’s cell phone, and the ease of having the bill paid through the ever-handy Q-Card.

The RAVE student cell phone provider sponsors QU Mobile and offers all these applications, services and more aimed at making the lives of the Quinnipiac Community run more efficiently.

RAVE is partnered with the service provider Sprint, so one using a QU Mobile phone would be on the Sprint network.

“What is so great about this offer is that the phone has all the calling features of a regular cell phone, but a user would also receive things like unlimited text messages at no additional cost,” manager of Training/Communications David Vance said.

Students would also receive the RAVE applications such as text alerts and school e-mail at no additional cost.

For 1,000 anytime minutes, not including free Sprint-to-Sprint calling and free nights and weekends starting at 7 p.m., a student with a QU mobile phone would pay about 70 dollars a month with each additional minute costing .25 cents.

Though a QU Mobile user pays for the months in an entire semester at one time, when broken down into monthly payments, the price is very close to an equivalent plan on Sprint.com.

The same holds true when purchasing one of the compatible cell phones.

Though, in most cases, you must buy a new phone, there are quite a few Sprint phones to choose from. The phones are priced at discounted rates equivalent to the prices on the Sprint website when signing up for a plan. The Sanyo Katana DLX is $79.99 if purchased when signing up for a plan; it is the same price through QU Mobile.

One concern of many students and parents interested in switching over to QU Mobile from other networks are the fees incurred from breaking their current contract. QU Mobile will give a $100 credit to anyone who is switching carriers to compensate for the contract cancelation fee of his or her old provider.

“I think it’s awesome that QU mobile is charging prices that are the same as regular Sprint plans, plus, the applications seem awesome,” freshman communications major Kaitlin Lee said.

If interested in signing up for QU Mobile, one can register online at www.getrave.com/login/Quinnipiac and also explore additional information about the cell phone service in the same location.

Orders will be taken through the holidays and students will be able to pick up their new phones on Jan. 22.