<p>What stuff is totally required to live on-campus?
Cell phone, comp., fridge, tv, (PS 2), …?
What do we NEED? and what can we live without?</p>
<p>wont hurt if u wait for orientation day… or not.</p>
<p>I found the following made life just that much better:</p>
<p>Laptop or smallish desktop setup, fridge (just get one of the rentals), and cell phone. I can’t imagine my life without my cell phone. Land lines suck.</p>
<p>Good to have, but unnecessary= TV and game console</p>
<p>speaking of which, hows cell coverage on campus? specifically Cingular?</p>
<p>PS2 would be ideal game console since it plays dvd and whatnot… i could be wrong. im not a console-user.</p>
<p>doesnt that depend on the Cingular station that covers UCLA?</p>
<p>XBox also plays DVDs, for the record. Better, in my opinion.</p>
<p>About Cingular…Cingular coverage is, from what I have gathered, pretty good. My friend has it and gets great coverage in most areas. The fact is, some areas of Westwood just have crappy coverage period.</p>
<p>Best service in the area is of course Verizon.</p>
<p>Yeah Verizon is best, but there are some new cell towers on top of Hedrick (Sprint, I believe), so other services should have good coverage as well.</p>
<p>Anecdote: I had T-Mobile starting in 2003. I hated it at first. There were horrific issues with the network not letting me make calls, dropped calls, and reception. Well, by about January of 2004, I could make calls without a hitch. Then I moved to Saxon. Oops, no reception. Well, by October, I had perfect reception, could always maked calls, and never had a dropped call. </p>
<p>So, T-Mobile managed to go from me wanting to pay to end the contract to me loving it. Sadly, my contract ends soon and I’m moving to Japan, so what the hell is the point? :(</p>
<p>so t-mobile is pretty good around campus then?</p>
<p>that means Cingular is equally as good, if not better. yay :)</p>
<p>the former Cingular (now T-Mobile) network used to be very overloaded, but they have since improved capacity and coverage a lot. and now, Cingular users can use both the former AT&T network and the T-Mobile network, so coverage is pretty solid almost everywhere here in NorCal (and I imagine the same in SoCal too).</p>
<p>Yeah, like I said, the only real quantum leap in service quality is Verizon. Other than that, it’s all pretty much the same.</p>
<p>No, that’s not true. The BEST service on-campus is Nextel. Believe me, I know, I used to have one for work with On-Campus Housing. I even got reception in the Dykstra basement!</p>
<p>I took my iPod to class every single day without fail. It was my best friend.</p>
<p>the former Cingular (now T-Mobile) network</p>
<p>no you have that backwards a bit. Now that Cingular and AT&T have merged, their networks have combined. Previously, T-mobile shared cells with Cingular, and to my knowledge, they still do.</p>
<p>the former Cingular network (310-170) was part of an agreement between T-Mobile and Cingular. Cingular let T-Mobile use their Cingular’s network in CA/NV, while T-Mobile let Cingular use T-Mobile’s network in NY. both Cingular and T-Mobile users had access to the network. as of January (?) this year, T-Mobile bought the 310-170 network from Cingular, so T-Mobile actually owns it now. but, part of their agreement is that T-Mobile will still allow Cingular users to roam onto the network, so it will still be shared by both customer bases for a few more years. after that, Cingular will have to rely solely on the former AT&T (310-380) network here in CA. (of course, Cingular will use these years to extensively build out the AT&T network to increase capacity and coverage)</p>
<p>[yeesh, how many times did i say “T-Mobile” and “Cingular” ? 
]</p>
<p>haha I see - interesting</p>
<p>what is the best cell phone plan 4 me, my parents are about 350 miles from the campus.</p>
<p>if I get a laptop; will I also need a printer. or is it better to get print outs in the labs.</p>
<p>ditto what freebird asked. printers are must?</p>
<p>Freebird: Any plan that gives you free long distance. Or, get a plan in your area so your parents call for free. Most people at UCLA have cells with free long distance anyway.</p>
<p>Oh, and recommend having a printer. I rather preferred having one.</p>