Cell phone service helps halt alcohol-fueled calls

Curtis Bridges, a graduate student in city and regional planning, said one of the most perilous items he possesses is his cell phone.

“That’s the most dangerous thing to have on a night of drinking,” Bridges said with a laugh.

Small and portable, cell phones are used by people around the world as utensils of embarrassment.

But instead of letting its customers continue to stutter and stammer through humiliating late-night drunken calls, the Australian branch of Virgin Mobile is offering a new service to combat what it calls “dialing under the influence.”

To help its customers “save face” during the holiday season, Virgin Mobile Australia began offering its drunk-dialing customers a blocking service on Dec. 1.

For 25 cents per phone number, customers can choose numbers they don’t want to call when drunk, and the number cannot be dialed until after 6 a.m. the next morning.

According to a survey of 409 people conducted by Virgin Mobile Australia, 95 percent of people make drunken dials. The survey showed 30 percent of such calls go to ex-boyfriends and -girlfriends and 19 percent to current partners.

And the calls are a regular part of the weekend. Of those surveyed, 54 percent said they make between one and three calls during a night out.

Brad Shinn, a sophomore exercise and sport science major, said drunk dialing occurs because most cell phone companies now offer free night and weekend minutes, which coincides perfectly with drinking.

But he said he would not use the service offered by Virgin Mobile if it hit the stateside. “I’m a fan of it,” he said. “I’d rather people not block it.”

Paul Zimmerman, a sophomore biomedical engineering major, said he enjoys drunk dialing because of its humor and would not use the service. “I’d be very offended if someone blocked me,” he said.

Although the feature is not yet available in the United States, Anne Green, a media relations employee for Virgin Mobile in the United States, said a similar feature is being considered, but there is no time frame for its implementation.

Gregory Francis, a graduate student in city and regional planning, said drunk dials start off as real conversations that then go horribly wrong. “I could see myself using (the service). If not now, in the future."

The service is marketed to the people making the phone calls, but recipients could also benefit.

Kevin Wood, a junior political science major, said he doesn’t drink and dial, but he hasn’t escaped the drunken dial himself.

“I got woken up one night at 2 o’clock. A friend called me, and he had only called because someone said the word ‘gay,’ and so he decided to call his only gay friend,” Wood said. “I told him I was asleep, and he shouldn’t call me so late at night.”

And some students have found a rival for drunken dialers — the drunken AOL instant message.

Senior English major Ali McGhee said, “Of course it’s evolved into drunk IMing … which is more hilarious because you can see all the typos.”

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