PROVIDERS SEEK RELAY SUPPORT FOR CALLS MIXING, MATCHING TECHNOLOGIES

摘要

The FCC should expand Interstate Telecom Relay Service funding support to TRS calls involving multiple communications assistants, interpreters and technologies, said AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Sorenson Communications, GoAmerica and five other TRS providers. The companies said federal funding for the calls is needed to meet Congress?functional-equivalency goals. But the request may have to overcome concerns on Capitol Hill that the TRS fund is already too large. FCC rules require TRS providers to 揵e capable of handling any type of call normally provided by telecom carriers,?the providers said. The TRS pays only for calls between people who are deaf and using the same kind of TRS technology, they said. nnThe fund抯 administrator, the National Exchange Carrier Association, makes reimbursements for calls between users of captioned telephone service and of video relay service and between users of text telephone and of captioned telephone, because it says they have no other way to call. But it doesn抰 pay for calls between video relay and text telephone, because it says they could be replaced with text-to-text or video-to-video calls. The association抯 reasoning 揾as a number of flaws,?the companies said. Users choose either text or video relay technologies 揵ecause this is the mode of telephonic communication that best meets their needs, not because it is cheaper to use one method over another, or because they have not taken the time or effort to 憉pdate?their relay technology,?they said. For example, children using video relay may not be able to use text because they抮e too young to type, they said. Similarly, a text-using deaf person that doesn抰 know sign language or lacks broadband may not be able to use video, they said.