Cable and satellite companies are the worst offenders when it comes to forcing customers to wait around for scheduled service calls, wasting time and money.

Who hasn’t taken time off from work for the cable installer or a repair crew, who inevitably arrive just minutes before the end of the six hour “window” the company provided.

Making people sit at home for service calls wastes money — a lot of it.  A new study from TOA Technologies found Americans hang out at home an average of 4.3 hours waiting for the cable guy to arrive, much longer than most people think they should have to wait.  TOA added up the cost of lost wages and reduced productivity that results when employees are absent — $37.7 billion annually.  That works out to an average of two eight-hour working days off a year per person, costing $250 a year.

More infuriating: you find yourself indisposed when the cable crew finally shows up and you can’t reach the door in time before they leave, or the promised visit never materializes.  That results in the dreaded “sorry we missed you” sticker attached to your front door and a rescheduled service call, often a week later.

When your cable company is also your Internet Service Provider, it can be double trouble.  ISP service calls were the second worst, phone companies fourth.

The cable industry’s lousy reputation among consumers is not lost on them. More than a decade ago, the industry voluntarily offered $20 service credits for late or missed service calls to improve their image. But TOA found the longer companies keep customers waiting, the more likely it is they will consider taking their business elsewhere.

With the advent of telephone company competition, customers infuriated by Comcast or Time Warner Cable may decide to switch to Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-verse, or vice-versa.  Now the cable industry is back with new ways to placate customers and save everyone time and money.  Shortened service call windows and self-install kits are increasingly common ways customers can avoid a day home from work.

Time Warner Cable is one of the cable industry’s most-improved players, reducing waiting windows, calling customers to give them a heads-up when they are on the way, and offering weekend and evening service calls. In upstate New York, Time Warner customers can, in certain circumstances, be given an estimated time of arrival accurate to within 10 minutes.

The 10-minute “Tech on the 10s” program only works on the first scheduled service call of the day.  If the cable repairman starts his shift at 9am, the only guaranteed time slot will be from 9-9:10am.  Because different technicians start their shifts throughout the day, the company promises that several hundred slots are available each week.  If the technician blows it and still arrives late, the customer gets $20 for their troubles.

The company hopes shortening wait windows will give customers fewer reasons to use that time to shop around for a different service provider.

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WSYR in Syracuse takes a look at the impact of waiting for the cable repair man to show up and what Time Warner Cable is doing about it.  (2 minutes)

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

Republicans in the Senate are falling in line behind their colleagues in the House in voting to repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s anemic Net Neutrality rules.

Virtually every Republican in the Senate is expected to vote in support of a resolution introduced by outgoing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) that would strip the FCC of its authority to impose the new rules, which would prohibit Internet Service Providers from interfering in the free flow of Internet content across their networks.  Nearly every Democrat in the Senate is expected to oppose the Republican-backed measure in a vote expected later today.

Republicans serving at the FCC and in Congress claim the federal agency has no congressional mandate to oversee the Internet.  The agency itself under Chairman Julius Genachowski has refused to fully enable its authority by reclassifying the Internet as a telecommunications service.  Because the agency’s role to oversee the conduct of the country’s service providers is at issue, it has left the FCC in a grey area, with its authority challenged both politically and in the courts.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) claims Net Neutrality rules are completely unnecessary because providers have already promised they will not tamper with traffic and, in his words, “This is a another big government solution in search of a problem.”

Hutchison said enforcement of Net Neutrality would stall broadband Internet development.

“It will increase costs and freeze many of the innovations that have already occurred under our open Internet system,” she said in a statement.

Democrats like Sen. Maria Cantwell from Washington State think otherwise.

Cantwell pointed to Comcast’s secretive effort in 2007 to throttle the speeds of peer-to-peer file sharing traffic.  Comcast initially denied it was interfering with torrent traffic, until eventually admitting it was.  The FCC sought to fine Comcast for the practice, but the cable giant sued the FCC and won in federal court.  The judge in the case ruled the FCC didn’t appear to have the authority to regulate Internet traffic or impose the associated fine.

Cantwell believes sensible Net Neutrality policies will prevent further instances of provider interference.

“These providers think if [they] can control the pipe [they] can also control the flow,” Cantwell said. “Why allow telcos to run wild on the Internet charging consumers anything they want based on the fact that they have control of the switch?”

Reporters questioned Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller about Net Neutrality, noting the measure opposing FCC involvement won support from several House Democrats.

Rockefeller pointed to the universal support for the anti-Net Neutrality measure on the Republican side as evidence this has become a partisan political issue.  Rockefeller hopes his Democratic colleagues in the Senate will see it the same way.

“There’s still 53 of us [Democrats], and if we stay together we’ll win,” Rockefeller said. “I think we’re going to prevail.”

Should the measure pass, President Barack Obama indicated he will veto it.

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C-SPAN talks with National Journal reporter Josh Smith about Net Neutrality’s prospects and the background issues surrounding Net Neutrality.  (3 minutes)

Verizon Communications, a highly-profitable multi-billion dollar corporation, has not paid a penny in taxes for the past three years.

That charge comes from a new report issued by two non-profit groups that want America’s tax burden spread more fairly.

“Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010,” released by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, scrutinized financial reports from nearly 300 profitable Fortune 500 companies.

At least 30 companies — including Verizon — were found to have maneuvered their way through corporate tax breaks and incentives, exporting revenue offshore, and other creative accounting to avoid paying a cent in taxes over the period.

Some of Verizon’s unionized workforce, fighting company efforts to curtail benefits and reduce pay, call the news a disgusting development.

“We wouldn’t mind if Verizon wasn’t paying taxes if they used the money saved to invest in American jobs,” said Myles Calvey, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union Local 2222. “Instead, while they dodge paying taxes in the U.S., they’re eliminating jobs and opening centers in Mexico and India. They wonder why the union hates them.”

Verizon disputes the findings, which do not allege the company broke any laws while trying to reduce the company’s tax bill.  In fact, American corporations have exported billions of dollars to offshore bank accounts specifically to avoid America’s corporate tax rate.  Some of those companies, including Verizon, now want the government to provide a special discount on corporate taxes in return for an agreement to repatriate corporate earnings.

Phil Santoro, a Verizon spokesman called the report “union-orchestrated” and says the company isn’t avoiding taxes, it is deferring them through government incentive programs designed to boost the economy.  The company also says it invested $16.5 billion over the time period in infrastructure expansion.

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CNN reports on the growing number of American corporations that no longer pay taxes thanks to special tax breaks and incentive programs available only to them.  (3 minutes)

The pushy door-to-door salesman is back, and he’s working for CenturyLink.

Lake Oswego (Ore.) residents have been the unwelcome recipients of repeated doorbell ringing by a small army of young CenturyLink salespeople.  Described by some residents as “rude,” “pushy,” and intrusive, the salespeople pelted would-be customers with questions about how many televisions and computers were found within their homes, and what kind of telecommunications services they had.

Some residents were so alarmed by the aggressive and suspicious sales tactics, they called police.

“They were persistent, they came to my door four times,” Lake Oswego resident Betty Endress, who lives in a private gated community, told KOIN-TV. “We have a ‘no solicitation’ policy.”

Endress refused to open the door because, in her words, it was CenturyLink — a company nobody had heard of.

In fact, CenturyLink acquired Qwest, the former Baby Bell that predominately serves the mountain west states.

CenturyLink admits the aggressive sales force belongs to them.  They are being sent into neighborhoods where the company recently upgraded its broadband service, trying to lure customers away from the cable competition.  But one South Portland resident was so alarmed when three salespeople showed up on his doorstep all at once, he called 911.

Telecommunications providers have been victimized by some criminals who represent themselves as company employees to force their way into residential homes to commit crimes.  CenturyLink says concerned residents should ask to see CenturyLink branded identification badges, uniforms, and a copy of the license permitting them to pursue door-to-door sales.

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Residents in private, gated communities told KOIN-TV in Portland they’d prefer not to be visited by CenturyLink salespeople on their doorsteps, whether the sales force holds a business license or not.  (3 minutes)

The House on Tuesday approved a five-year moratorium on new wireless taxes to keep states and localities from padding cell phone bills with new fees for wireless services.

The non-controversial measure easily won bipartisan support and passed quickly on a voice vote with just one member of Congress rising to oppose the measure.

The Wireless Tax Fairness Act, sponsored by Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, was heavily backed by the wireless industry.  The legislation doesn’t stop local and state governments from imposing existing taxes, but would keep new taxes off cell phone bills if the measure becomes law.  AT&T and Verizon spent heavily to promote the bill, noting customers are cutting back their cell phone and data plans in response to increasing taxes which run as high as 23% in some states.

Historically, state and local governments have seen cell phones as a luxury item, and have targeted them with taxes to help sustain government budgets.  But as consumers increasingly turn to cell phones as landline replacements, the days of such technology being used mostly by the well-heeled are well past.  Lofgren sees the burden of cell phone taxes on Californians, who have dropped traditional landline services in favor of smartphones and wireless broadband.

“We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence,” said Lofgren.

An identical Senate companion bill was introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), where it also seems to be getting bipartisan support.

Taxes on wireless services now meet or exceed those charged for alcohol and tobacco in several states.

[For flat monthly taxes and fees, average monthly consumer bill is estimated at $48.16 per month per CTIA – The Wireless Association.]

Source: Committee on State Taxation, 50-State Study and Report on Telecommunications Taxation, May 2005. Updated July 2010 by Scott Mackey, Kimbell Sherman Ellis LLP using state statutes and regulations.

The taxes levied are supposed to pay for everything from school funding to law enforcement to 911 services.  Some states impose 911 surcharges that local municipalities also charge themselves.  The free-for-all takes an even bigger bite as consumers adopt more expensive plans that include wireless data.

How much consumers would save with the passage of the legislation is unclear, because existing taxes are not impacted.  The measure also does nothing to stop the wireless industry from adding bill padding fees they conjure up themselves.

But the wireless industry still calls the House passage a “crucial step toward providing wireless subscribers with some much needed relief.”

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WKRG in Mobile, Ala. reports cell phone taxes are reaching an all-time high.  Nearby viewers in Pensacola, Fla. probably weren’t too happy to learn Florida is rated the 4th highest-taxed-state.  The Wireless Tax Fairness Act may prevent taxes from rising further, but it won’t stop existing fees.  Also included: Rep. Franks’ statement on the House floor introducing the bill and urging fellow members to support it.  (3 minutes)