Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 O roguery, thy name is portability! We headed down the road to this week's rogue at the request of an outraged US West customer, and at first it seemed like a clear path to the all-too-familiar door of the much-maligned phone company. But along the way our journey took us back in time to when the US Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which has spawned more rogues than Elizabethan London. Among the act's many evils is a provision allowing local phone-service providers such as US West to ding customers for as much as 53 cents per month on their phone bills as a "portability" charge. To most phone users, the term portability means being able to keep their phone number if you move across town, a request that US West often can't accommodate. In reality, according to Commissioner Joan Smith of the Public Utility Commission of Oregon, the charge relates to deregulation. It is intended to enable phone companies to create a database of numbers as well as a switching system, so that customers can keep their beloved seven digits if they switch local phone-service providers. The telecom companies say they must cover the cost of the impending phone wars. As a result, they recently began adding "portability" fees to their monthly bills. (US West charges 53 cents per month, and GTE charges 35 cents). The problem is that there is no local competition in the Portland Metro area, and there isn't likely to be any for another two years, at least for residential lines. Meanwhile, US West and GTE (as well as the other Baby Bells across the nation) are still hitting up customers with the monthly charges--and will be able to do so until 2004. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published September 8, 1999