STC Services is a private company that is contracted by Lafayette College to provide phone services to the school. STC acts as your long distance carrier. Bell Atlantic is your local phone company. STC charges Lafayette a rate for each phone call made. Then Lafayette charges the students a higher rate and makes money off of it. In addition to Lafayette, STC provides telephone billing and help desk services to 43 campuses.

The rate is 10 cents a minute anytime.

You will get charged for any call that requires you to enter your 8 digit PIN. STC will not remove calls placed from your account even if you didn't make them, keep your PIN to yourself. Your PIN can be used from any campus phone, except those outside of each residential hall.

Lafayette has limited the number of 800, 888, 877, and 777 (toll free) numbers that can be placed by the college at any given time. For example, if there are a lot of people using calling cards at one time, then you will receive a fast busy signal and won't be able to place a toll free call.

Once a month, you will receive a phone bill from STC Services in your mailbox. They do charge late fees, so make sure you don't forget to pay. They do accept Visa and Mastercard as payment methods, but you have to call xSTC2 (7822) to pay that way.

Some cool features they don't tell you right away:

• Call Waiting - Press "flash" button, press "#", press "1", talk to new party. To transfer back, press "flash" button, press "#", press "1"
• Transfer - Press "flash" button, dial party, announce, press "flash" button again, hang up. If no answer or busy, press "flash" twice.
• Conference (total 3 at once) - Press "flash" button, dial party, announce, press "flash" button again. If no answer or busy, press "flash" twice.
• Drop - Drops last party on a conference call. Press "flash." This will disconnect last party.
• Call Forward - Temporarily directs calls to another extension. To activate: press *2 and extension number. You will hear a confirmation code. To cancel, press #2.
• Call Forward "busy doesn't answer" - Dial *9 plus 4100 to forward call to voice mail.

And finally, the most important piece of information: a double ring is an outside call (parents) while a single ring is an inside call. This little bit of information can come in quite handy when you don't want to answer the phone drunk, and have to talk to mom and dad.

If you have any questions or comments about this page, please e-mail Sameer.