<p>If you use a family plan, your child can call home without running up long distance or roaming charges. Therefore, you may want to get him a phone number local to his college. Otherwise, long distance charges will mount up for calls made to your child’s new college friends who are sitting perhaps a few hundred feet away. Your local cell phone store can set up a number local to the college. It’s not necessary to wait and do it at the college.</p>