After struggling with technical difficulties of handling coin sen...
After struggling with technical difficulties of handling coin sent-paid calls through telecom relay services (TRS), FCC released proposal Fri. that it said finally would enable persons with hearing or speech disabilities to make TRS calls on payphones. New rules…
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would enable TRS user to pay no more than person making non-TRS calls, Commission said. Americans with Disabilities Act requires common carriers to provide people with disabilities with services that are “functionally equivalent” to those available to those without disabilities. Attempt several years ago to require such equivalency for calls made with coins from payphones resulted in multiple suspensions of requirement. New proposal requires that phone carriers: (1) Not charge TRS users for making relay calls from payphones that otherwise would be local. (2) Enable TRS users to use calling cards, collect or 3rd party billing for toll calls from payphones. Users would be charged whichever was lower -- coin phone rate or rate from those other payment methods. (3) Conduct consumer education programs for TRS users. With TRS, callers type their conversations on text telephones called TTYs. Those messages are sent to TRS centers where they are read and forwarded verbally to persons at receiving end of call.