Smart phones help international students keep in touch with loved ones back home
For Rebecca Lee Martyn, staying in touch with her family and friends back home in Hong Kong is extremely important.
Martyn moved to Toronto in 2008 to study anthropology and international development at the University of Toronto.
Now in her fourth year of study, Martyn has almost mastered the art of communication-thanks to advances in technology.
Many international students in Toronto are searching for inexpensive ways to talk to people back home.
“I interact with people I know from Hong Kong-who may still live in Hong Kong or have moved elsewhere -almost daily,” she said.
A new app called What’s App allows smart phone users to communicate via text or video chat. The app can be used with all phones, allowing blackberry users and iPhone users to finally connect on a messaging
For Rebecca Lee Martyn, staying in touch with her family and friends back home in Hong Kong is extremely important.
Martyn moved to Toronto in 2008 to study anthropology and international development at the University of Toronto.
Now in her fourth year of study, Martyn has almost mastered the art of communication-thanks to advances in technology.
“I interact with people I know from Hong Kong-who may still live in Hong Kong or have moved elsewhere almost daily,” she said.
A new app called What’s App allows smart phone users to communicate via text or video chat. The app can be used with all phones, allowing blackberry users and iPhone users to finally connect on a messaging system compatible with both devices.
Martyn cites ‘what’s app’ as a source she uses often to communicate with family members. This app allows her to communicate freely without the worry of racking up an expensive cell phone bill.
“I have unlimited long distance texting, and unlimited internet so I go on Skype and Whats App, sometimes I buy call cards,” she said.
As a Wind mobile customer, and student on a budget, Martyn admits that she looks for cheap prices over reliable service.
“Wind mobile sucks, but the trade off is that it’s cheap,” she said.
Rogers is a company that has realized the growing population of international students in Toronto and they are trying to come up with phone plans and rates that better suit these students and their communication needs.
Rogers along with Fido, has a 5 dollar international preferred rate. This plan allows students to call popular destinations like Hong Kong and the UK for just 10 cents a minute.
According to Kaili Lupp, a spokesperson for Rogers communications, their international plans are some of the best Toronto has to offer.
“[Our] offers are awesome because it doesn’t confine users to a bucket of minutes. Buckets can lead to nasty overage charges if you use too much, or high breakage rates if you don’t use enough,” Lupp said. “Callers can use this offer worry free, as much as they want, and know that they are protected by an affordable rate.”
While Skype has become a popular communication device than cell phone usage, it may not be as dependable as talking via a phone line.
“Unreliable internet connections make it hard and frustrating at times [to stay in touch],” Martyn said.
Skype is a company that partnered with Microsoft earlier this year. Together, they have become one of the fasted growing ways to communicated with people internationally. Skype offers video chat, text messages and voice chat to over 70 countries in the world.
At peak times, Skype has over 30 million users online.
According to Lacretia Taylor, a spokesperson for Skype, the main goal of Skype is to make connecting with people far away easier.
“Skype [makes] it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever you are,” she said.
Skype offers different bundles to suit the needs of almost any international student. Unlimited world calling is just $13.99 a month and allows students to call back home as many times as needed.
While newer technologies are cropping up to help international students remain connected to loved ones, some students still prefer to use calling cards.
An online company known as NobelCom, provides long-distance calling cards from anywhere in the world at affordable prices. A calling card from Toronto to Hong Kong, for example, would cost twenty Canadian dollars for 712 minutes.
Owner Anthony Simpson says NobelCom has found a way to be one step above the competitors.
“NobelCom provides online customers with a secure way to purchase affordable, easy-to-use prepaid phone cards,” Simpson said. “We are able to deliver premium products at a bargain price due to the fact that we have our own carrier.”
As it seems that technology is on the rise every day, one can only wonder what the future of communication means for international students.
According to Jonathan Strickland, a blogger about the future of technology, cell phones are fading out and will be replaced by other means of communication.
In a recent article on HowStuffWorks.com, Strickland said, “In the short term, we’ll likely see basic cell phones slowly fade away. As smartphones become more common and less expensive, more people will adopt them,” Strickland wrote.
While Strickland admits that video conferencing devices like Skype, are on the rise, he believes there will one day be a replacement to video calls which people will soon find to be a less than spectacular way of communicating.
“One drawback to video conferencing is that it either requires you to stay in one place for the duration of the call, or hold a device so that you are visible,” he wrote.
Whatever the future holds for the future of communication, right now international students must find ways to stay close to family and friends while physically being half way around the world.
While Martyn likes video calling devices like Skype and What’s app, she feels the city can do more to help students like herself stay in touch.
“Unlimited and reliable wifi in Toronto would make it easy for me to communicate whenever and wherever. I communicate with people across many different time zones, so I never know when I will get a call from a loved one.”
We are a team of culturally diverse journalists who are passionate about covering issues international students care about.