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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Verizon bills
are dropping
36-cent chargeQuestion: I'm a "snowbird" who lives in Michigan and Hawaii. In Michigan my telephone company removed the service provider number portability fee. In my latest bill from Verizon, they're still charging me 36 cents a month for this portability fee. I thought it was supposed to have ended, at least it did in Michigan. Why the difference?
Answer: Yours is a timely question, since Verizon says the surcharge stopped being applied last month.
The Federal Communications Commission allowed telephone companies to charge customers a fee for the ability to keep their telephone numbers even if they switched to another company, as long as they stayed in the same location and calling area.
However, this charge for "local number portability" (also known as "service provider number portability") could only be assessed for five years from the date of implementation.
Verizon Hawaii's surcharge was approved in March 1999, said spokeswoman Ann Nishida.
Depending on a customer's billing cycle, the surcharge ceased as of March 10, she said.
"We did a quick, informal audit of customer bills and found the surcharge was no longer appearing, but again, it depends on the customer's billing cycle," Nishida said yesterday.
However, "If the bill is for a period prior to March 10, the surcharge may still appear."
If you have further questions, call Verizon at 643-3456.
According to the FCC, Congress reviewed the Telecommunications Act in 1996 to see what could be done to promote competition and reduce regulation.
The inability of customers to keep their local telephone numbers when switching companies was found to be a major barrier to competition, so Congress decided there should be number portability.
In order to provide this portability, the telephone companies had to upgrade their networks. The FCC evaluated the costs involved in such upgrades in 1998 and "determined that existing local telephone companies were allowed, but not required, to recover the costs of implementing and providing telephone number portability through two kinds of charges."
One was "charges paid by other telephone companies that use a telephone company's number portability facilities to process their own calls," and the other was "a small, fixed monthly charge assessed on telephone customers or 'end users.'"
Meanwhile, it was only last year that the FCC mandated that wireless service companies provide this local number portability to their customers. Portability was to be available in the 100 largest "metropolitan statistical areas," including Honolulu (68th on the list), by Nov. 24, 2003, and, in other areas, six months after receiving a request "to port" or by May 24, 2004, whichever is later.
In this case, the FCC says it does not regulate the rates of the wireless service industry because it already is highly competitive and that "competition brings the lowest prices for consumers."
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