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Robocaller Control: Free Service Nomorobo Hangs Up on Your Junk Phone Calls

Phillip Dampier December 17, 2013 Consumer News, Public Policy & Gov't 2 Comments

hang upRobocallers pitching extended auto warranties, home alarm systems, lowered interest rates on credit cards, and more are back in business, despite the “Do Not Call Registry” from the Federal Trade Commission designed to stop the junk phone calls.

Rogue telemarketing has gotten so out of hand, the very federal agency responsible to help stop the torrent of unwanted sales calls had to post a warning about telemarketers misrepresenting themselves as FTC agents on its own website.

The FTC acknowledges it has an uphill battle.

“Our law enforcement actions have already halted billions of robocalls, but with today’s technology, tens of millions can be blasted each day — at a per-minute calling cost of less than 1 cent,” said Federal Trade Commission official Lois Greisman, who oversees the National Do Not Call Registry.

Identifying violators has become increasingly difficult as scammers learn to fake (or ‘spoof’) call origination data that shows up on your Caller ID display.

“Dozens and dozens of spoofed numbers can be used per robocall campaign, and telemarketing scripts are shared as well,” says Greisman, explaining why you may get the same rip-off recording from different incoming numbers.

The most recent trick is to spoof a Caller ID number that appears local, increasing the odds you will pick up the phone. Instead of a family friend on the other end, it is a recorded pitch offering to refinance your mortgage.

A desperate FTC concluded it might be in over its head and launched a contest offering $50,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C. for anyone offering a better solution.

The winner: Nomorobo

nomoroboNomorobo is the idea of Steve Foss and it tied first place in the FTC Robocall Challenge.

The free service works with most Voice over IP phone lines (think Vonage or a phone line supplied by your cable operator), but has gotten a mixed reception from wireless carriers and landline giants Verizon and AT&T.

It works with a phone feature called “Simultaneous Ring,” which means when a person calls your number, Nomorobo’s “phone” is also ringing just long enough to collect Caller ID information to compare against its master-telemarketer list. If the number is a known phone spammer, Nomorobo intercepts the call and hangs up on the caller after the first ring. Your legitimate calls still arrive with no interference.

Some phone companies known to support Nomorobo, but not necessarily the only ones:

  • AT&T U-verse
  • Cablevision Optimum
  • SureWest
  • Time Warner Cable
  • Verizon FiOS
  • Vonage

Phone companies like AT&T and Verizon have so far refused to support the service for its landline and wireless customers.

ftc challengeAfter registering, Nomorobo will guide new users through the simple set up process step-by-step.

The system does not track your incoming calls nor does it monitor them. If an unwanted telemarketer does get through, a report option on the website will help get the unwanted caller’s number into the database.

Stop the Cap! has tested the service and found it effective in blocking about 75% of the unwanted calls that arrive in our office. Our phone rings just once — long enough for caller ID information to be passed — and when the system identifies a known phone spammer, it disconnects them. But the system is not perfect. Telemarketers can theoretically change their spoofed Caller ID number(s) to get around the call block, and we found Nomorobo’s database only as good as the crowdsourced data allows.

Nomorobo also won’t stop political or non-profit groups from calling, at least for now. Our second biggest problem — calls from collection agencies hounding the last owner of our phone number, also remain unaffected.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KNXV Phoenix Block robocalls for free with new website 10-15-13.mp4[/flv]

KNXV in Phoenix explains Nomorobo to its viewers. The service works mostly with Voice over IP providers, which leaves a lot of AT&T and Verizon customers unprotected. (2:04)

Incoming Time Warner Cable CEO Gets $50+ Million Bonus if Company Sold

Phillip Dampier December 3, 2013 Consumer News 1 Comment

Money-Stuffed-Into-PocketThe incoming CEO of Time Warner Cable will walk away with more than $50 million just for getting out-of-the-way of a sale or breakup of the company.

Robert Marcus is scheduled to take over the CEO role Jan. 1 after Glenn Britt retires. But there is a good chance Marcus won’t have a cable company to run if executives decide to accept anticipated takeover offers due within weeks that could turn ownership of Time Warner over to Charter Communications or split up subscribers among several potential buyers including Comcast, Cox, and Charter.

Reuters reports Marcus will earn the most if he can hold off buyers for the next four weeks until he becomes CEO. Under his employment contract, Marcus would then qualify for a generous goodbye package:

  • A compensation bonus amounting to three times his base salary of $1.5 million;
  • A departure award amounting to three times his usual $5 million annual bonus;
  • Permission to cash out the large amount of stock he has earned as part of his compensation, now valued at $37 million.

In total, Marcus could earn $56.5 million for just one day of work — long enough to shake the hands of the new buyer(s) and head for the elevators for the last time. If the company sells before Dec. 31, Marcus will still land on his feet, earning a severance package valued at $47.5 million.

In a separate move, Time Warner Cable executive vice president Peter Stern dumped 4,253 shares of his company’s stock at $130 a share, taking $552,890 in compensation.

While top managers are routinely offered generous departure packages more commonly known as “golden parachutes,” thousands of lower-level Time Warner Cable employees will likely face the ax within months of any sale, predicted one analyst. In similarly sized mergers and buyouts, the largest job losses will impact call center workers and middle management. Other employees will likely leave if asked to move to regional operations centers in other cities where the buyer(s) operate. At least one analyst said it was unusual for Time Warner Cable to proceed with a CEO switch while the company is in play.

Marcus understands how the business of mergers and acquisitions work; he started his career as an attorney specializing in the practice.

Savings from Cable Consolidation? Wall Street Analyst Says They Don’t Exist

Phillip Dampier December 2, 2013 Charter Spectrum, Comcast/Xfinity, Competition, Consumer News, Public Policy & Gov't Comments Off on Savings from Cable Consolidation? Wall Street Analyst Says They Don’t Exist
In Search Of... Savings

In Search Of… Savings

The cable industry’s week-long feeding frenzy over consolidating Time Warner Cable out of existence comes with the theory that growing larger guarantees cheaper programming costs from volume discounts and influence. But hang on, says Wall Street analyst firm Sanford C. Bernstein.

This week, senior analyst Todd Juenger released a report, “Will Cable Consolidation Slow Down Affiliate Fee Growth? We Say ‘No,’” that questions the theory the bigger the company, the more leverage available to keep costs down.

Juenger says that few customers are in love with their local cable company, and programmers know it. If another brawl erupts between CBS and a cable operator, the presumption of leverage to quickly resolve the dispute is more hope than reality because customers will readily abandon one provider for another to get what they want.

“Consumers are much more loyal to their favorite TV networks than they are to their distributor,” Juenger says. “Every time a distributor has tried to fight back by dropping the content from one of these [big programming] companies, it has ended badly for the distributor because consumers will switch distributors, not TV networks.”

Programming carriage wars will continue to hurt cable companies as long as there is a satellite or telco-TV competitor ready to sign up disgruntled customers. If a suite of Viacom-owned networks are dropped during a cable fee dispute, the cable operator will save around $2.75 a month per subscriber. But if that subscriber decides to change providers, operators lose as much as $40 in marketing costs paid to attract that subscriber in the first place.

Juenger believes the only way combining cable operators will save on programming fees is when smaller cable operators like Charter get the benefit of big discounts on programming offered to larger, high volume providers like Time Warner Cable.

Juenger adds bringing Comcast in as a buyer gets complicated because if Comcast tries to drop networks, programmers might have leverage by appealing to the federal government with claims Comcast is violating its agreement with the federal government to avoid abuse of market power to strangle competitors.

Time Warner Cable Follows Comcast’s Lead Offering HBO With “Starter” Cable TV

Phillip Dampier November 27, 2013 Consumer News 6 Comments

Time Warner Cable is following Comcast offering customers that don’t care about the majority of cable channels the opportunity to subscribe to HBO with a bare bones cable TV package.

“Starter TV” offers a stripped down package of 20 channels, mostly local over-the-air stations for $19.99 a month for the first year targeting cord-cutters and cord-nevers that don’t subscribe to television packages. A bundle including Starter TV and HBO is now being marketed on Time Warner Cable’s home page for $29.99 a month.

Time Warner Cable has dropped the "digital TV"-branded plans in favor of "Preferred TV."

Time Warner Cable has dropped the “digital TV”-branded plans in favor of “Preferred TV.”

The lineup in many cities may include fewer than 20 channels, depending on the number of local broadcasters. But most customers will get:

  • starter tvLocal ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and CW stations;
  • Galavision, Telemundo and Univision (Spanish), either as a national feed or from a local affiliate, if any;
  • C-SPAN 1/2/3;
  • QVC, ShopNBC, and HSN home shopping channels;
  • TBN

There are a variety of associated equipment fees that will raise the final price well above $30 a month, but for those who just want HBO and local broadcasters, Time Warner Cable is providing a way to avoid paying for lots of networks many customers never watch.

Cox Communications Exploring Bid for Time Warner Cable

coxCox Communications is contemplating jumping into the bidding for Time Warner Cable either on its own or with others, according to a story published in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Privately held Cox is the country’s third largest cable operator, right behind Time Warner Cable, with nearly 4.5 million subscribers. It’s slightly larger than Charter Communications, which itself wants to acquire TWC.

timewarner twcCox and Cablevision, the nation’s two largest privately held or controlled cable companies, have both been mentioned as targets for takeover in a rush to consolidate the cable industry. Cablevision has been rumored to be on the verge of selling for years, but the Dolan family that founded the cable operator has the final say. Cox previously indicated it had no intention of selling, preferring to explore buying opportunities.

Speculation is mounting that Comcast, Charter, and now perhaps Cox could offer a joint bid for Time Warner Cable, splitting up the company and absorbing TWC subscribers in their own operations without attracting unwanted attention from antitrust regulators and the FCC, either which could effectively torpedo a deal.

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