Video relay service provider CSDVRS said the FCC violated the Adm...
Video relay service provider CSDVRS said the FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it required Internet-based relay providers to redirect users’ old toll-free numbers to their new 10-digit geographic numbers in the service management system 800 database. The…
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FCC issued a “clarification” in a public notice last month (CD Aug 12 p5). In a petition for expedited reconsideration last week, CSDVRS said the “substantive change” hurt VRS competition, violated interoperability principles and undermined Communications Act requirements of functionally equivalent service. The rule prevents deaf consumers and businesses from receiving 800 calls made by a provider other than the called party’s default provider, CSDVRS said. That provides the consumer incentive to use only the provider with the most users, it said. The rule also hurts competition for consumers calling from public pay phones by removing 800 TRS numbers that some providers use to provide dial-around service, the company said. It violates interoperability by requiring hearing callers to use the provider chosen by the 800-number user to handle VRS calls, it said. And it restricts the opportunity of businesses owned by people who are deaf to “effectively compete with their hearing counterparts though a single 800 number that can be used by anyone wishing to call them,” it said.