I live in CA and my provider is Pacific Bell. I have a charge listed as above at .34 per month for such an item. I can’t seem to get a straight answer from Pacific Bell. Their ‘explanation’ was that it’s a charge to insure you’ll be able to take your same phone number with you when you move. WTF, if I leave CA, I doubt if I could take the ‘same number’ with me to another city/state/country?
Is this a ripoff or what?
Thanks for the Straight Dope on this!
PV
<<Their ‘explanation’ was that it’s a charge to insure you’ll be able to take your same phone number with you when you move. WTF, if I leave CA, I doubt if I could take the ‘same number’ with me to another city/state/country?>>
Yes, but if you move within the city, they can reassign your phone number to the new phone line wherever your new place is. Lots of folks move only a few blocks or miles, because they can’t afford their rent, roommates change, children are born, or jobs demand it.
Corr
It has to do with deregulation of local phone service. So that you can keep your same phone number should you switch local providers:
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Factsheets/portable.html
I’ve lived in this house for 33 years (since 1968), and I really don’t plan on moving. Seems that this charge could be ‘dropped’ by anyone who has paid into it a couple of years and not moved and doesn’t plan to.
Ok on another tack, CA has 32 mil citizens, say one third have phones or apx. 10 mil people. .34 times ten mil each month? An that’s just one state, a big state, but still only one of 50. I think even Bill Gates would like guaranteed income like that. I still think it’s a bullshit/ripoff charge invented by the phone companies.
There are also a bunch of as my phone bill calls them ‘Taxes and Surcharges’
[ol]
[li]Charges for Network Access for Interstate Calling[/li][li]Federal Universal Service Fee[/li][li]CA High Cost Fund Surcharge (A and B)[/li][li]California Teleconnect Fund Surcharge[/li][li]Universal Lifeline Telephone Service Surcharge[/li][li]Rate Surcharge[/li][li]State Regulatory Fee[/li][li]CA Relay Service and Communications Devices Funds[/li][li]Tax (Fed, 911 and Local)[/li][/ol]
Guess they just ran out of ideas with #6 
You don’t have to move - you could just change your local phone service provider. You might look at the bottom of that link I gave, which has a section entitled “My local telephone company is charging me for number portability. What options do I have?”. Unfortunately, the answer seems to boil down to “diddly-squat”.
<<I’ve lived in this house for 33 years (since 1968), and I really don’t plan on moving. Seems that this charge could be ‘dropped’ by anyone who has paid into it a couple of years and not moved and doesn’t plan to.
>>
Warning I may be overreacting.
I’ve only ever heard this sort of complaint from people who don’t want to pay for 911 or TTY service, because they’ve never called 911 and they don’t know any deaf people.
What about considering the charge you cite, $4 a year, as the price a more prosperous person like a homeowner pays to be able to consistently reach their less prosperous friends who might be forced to move when their apartment complex is sold or they move to a smaller apartment because they lost their job?
Corr, who won’t be in the situation of a 35 year homeowner for many, many years
It’s bullshit.
I moved 6 blocks and had to get a new phone number because I moved to a new “zone”. Apparently, the zones where your phones are portable are about a 4 block square area in downtown Chicago.
I have a feeling that we will have a class action suit to get rid of this charge. Can anyone say “inside line maintenance fee”? I got $75 for that one. Save your phone bills - class action suits require some proof that you were billed for the service in order to collect.
One of those fees really causes the ire of many conservatives because it was originally slapped on to pay for the Spanish-America war (circa 1898) and was never repealed.
The L.N.P.C. is more for switching local phone service then moving. If you switched from your local bell to mom and pop telco your local bell might not allow mom and pop to use your old number - this might be a reason to stay with your local bell. Now since we’re all paying the LNPC the local bell must release the number to mom and pop so you can maintain your number.
Now on to if you move - you could always have your old number but may be required to pay milage fees if you are out of the area - but if you move and switch your local service you now (thanks to your $0.34) maintain your old number.
You really can’t beat the phone company. Years ago I had to pay a $2.00 surcharge for a 911 service. Fine EXCEPT my town was split between Will County and Cook County. Since I lived in Will I could not access 911. So I had to pay for a service I could not use.
Actually now that I think of it, it would be fairer to make you pay IF you didn’t want a new number. In other words if you wanted to take your number you would have to pay 34¢ times each month you had that phone number to keep it. Otherwise you’d have to take a new number.
It’s like when the phone company says most people WANT their number listed. Given the choice if it was free I bet not many would.