Remember the old phone that hung on your dorm-room wall? At Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., dorm phones are going wireless, and they'll fit in a student's pocket.

The school is jumping on the mobile bandwagon by offering cellphones to all students who live on campus. Tonight on "Tech Live" we show you how Marshall is becoming the first major university in the nation to offer such a service. The program has received so much attention, other schools have called asking how they can set up a similar service on their campuses.

It's estimated that some 70 percent of students at Marshall have cellphones. Sophomore Lindsy Crutchfield, who lives on campus, is looking forward to the new free service.

"I have my own personal cellphone," she says. "I pay my own bills, and I was excited to hear that we were going to get a cellphone and that wasn't going to be a monthly bill, and we were going to be able to use that instead of the room phones."

In four of the school's newest dorms, the hard-wired phones are already gone.

Can you hear me now?

Before the transition away from landlines could happen, engineers had to be certain a strong signal was available from every campus dorm room, hallway, and study lounge.

Enter West Virginia Wireless. As part of the school's Mobile Alternative for Residents on Campus (MARC) initiative, WVW provided wireless phones and service to 500 Marshall students who live on campus. An additional 750 students will be added to the program this fall. The school plans to have wireless phones in the hands of all 2,500 students living on campus by fall 2005.

"The average cell network is not designed for in-building coverage," said Linda Martin, president of WVW. "So we had to make a commitment as West Virginia Wireless to come and put extra equipment on the dorms to make sure they got that type of reliability and coverage."

You mean I can't call Miss Cleo?

Under MARC, students receive free nationwide long-distance, no roaming charges, and even unlimited minutes. Students do have to replace or pay for damaged phones or other equipment that comes with the plan. Still, the whole deal almost sounds too good to be true.

"There are limitations," said Joseph Whitt, a Marshall University information systems technician. "All 900-numbers are blocked, students cannot make any international calls, they cannot call Alaska and Hawaii. So basically that leaves all 48 [contiguous] United States they can call, 24 hours a day... seven days a week."

And that around-the-clock feature is something that students such as Lindsy Crutchfield plan to give a hefty workout. Crutchfield also says the service will help her feel safer.

"I use my phone all the time, I take it with me everywhere," she says. "It's just really helpful to have a cellphone. You feel more secure, you feel safer if something were to happen.... You'd always have it with you and you could call someone if you needed to."