Embracing cell phones at the beach
July 7, 2008
When I’m out hiking or enjoying the great outdoors in some form, I tend to scoff when I see people out in nature yacking on their cell phones. But at Assateague Island National Seashore, the park is making your cell phone part of the whole nature experience.
The park announced Thursday that visitors can now use their cell phones to take a guided audio tour of the seashore and learn more about the island’s famous wild horses. Users will sacrifice their own cell minutes for the call, but there’s no charge for the tour.
The pilot program is provided by OnCell Audio and listeners will have the option to provide feedback on their experience. The program has improved “proved fairly popular and effective” at least for some organizations.
On the surface it seems like a neat idea, but I can think of a few hitches. Like, what if you don’t get cell service out on the beach? Or your call breaks up and you have to keep redialing? Last time I was at Assateague I didn’t have any service problems but I didn’t try to use my phone once I was inside the park gates.
What do you think about this new offer? Is it a modern move for a national park or something that could potentially exclude some visitors’ access?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
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