Fierce Wireless did a story on mobile phone subscribers who aren’t getting the most out of the technical/legislative feature of “porting” your phone number.

I respond:

Unbreakable long-term service contracts and ETFs counteract the utility of number portability in the States — if you can’t break up with your provider for less than $200 - $250, who cares if your number is “portable”? It’s like saying that anything is portable, so long as you’re willing to pay to move it.

When my car was stolen, AT&T (now Cingular /Sbc/ WhateverTF) botched the proceedings so badly that I decided to switch providers to T-Mobile. Then I was informed that since I “had disconnected service to the phone, I could no longer port my number to a new provider.” Hah. (I had disabled service when it was stolen after I discovered that the car thieves were making calls with my stolen phone.)

We have a long way to go.