The Thayer dorm room that David R. Ferris ’05 shares with his roommates is missing something that most 18-year-olds across the globe could not live without: a telephone. Instead of heading to the Coop to ogle the selection of cordless products, the three may not buy a land line at all and simply use cellular phones for all of their calling needs.

If they decide to forgo a phone for the year, Ferris will need to equip himself with a cell, so he’s been looking into service plans. The rumors are that Sprint PCS is the way to go, he says while chatting with friends outside of the Science Center.

Though Ferris is still contemplating the purchase, other students are buying—and buying and buying.

The Sprint PCS store on the corner of Church and Brattle Street, which opened last May, was number one in sales in the northeast last month, and this month sales are already up 300 percent, according to Sprint sales representative Deyano S. Manco.

Customer service representative Sabry Soukehal adds that stores are expected to sell 550 phone activations a month. The Cambridge branch beat that by an extra 17 percent.

“Just the other day we had our best sales day since the day we opened and gave out free phones,” Manco says.

Manco attributes part of Sprint’s success to the fact that its plans are available to people who don’t have a Social Security number.

“At this store we deal with a lot of international students because Sprint’s the only company that gives them an option,” he said.