Verizon Ups Fees for Number Portability

Verizon Wireless plans to charge subscribers more than $173 million a year in extra fees for costs related to new rules that allow customers to take their phone numbers to new service providers -- more than double what the nation’s largest cellular carrier had said it expected to charge.

A company serving as the intermediary among most of the major wireless providers in transferring phone numbers said it received about 80,000 requests Monday, the first day of the new rules. TSI Telecommunications Services had been bracing for a million or more requests Monday.

The decision by Verizon Wireless leaves T-Mobile as the only national wireless carrier not charging such a fee.

Shares of parent Verizon Communications Inc. rose 53 cents to $33.03 on the NYSE.