Cingular, Rave Take Mobile Apps To College

Cingular Wireless and Rave Wireless have partnered in offering colleges campus-specific mobile applications and services targeted to students.

Under the alliance, Atlanta-based Cingular provides the voice communications and data services, while Rave supplies the software and manages the services.

Eastern Michigan University is the first college to agree to deploy the new offering, the companies said. The university plans to launch a pilot project in the fall that would enable students to participate in group text messaging, receive university and class alerts, and access services such as email, the course management platform, and staff directories.

A select number of students will be issued Sony Ericsson W810 and W600i mobile music and video phones for the pilot.

"We wanted to leverage the mobile phone to make our students better connected to the university, to their faculty and coursework, and to each other," James Vick, vice president for student affairs at EMU, said in a statement.Rave, based in New York, provides a suite of campus-specific tools, including broadcast text messaging, interactive groups and polls, real-time shuttle bus tracking, course alerts and information, and location-based personal safety applications. The latter runs on a global positioning system.