Convo Urges FCC To Act on VRS Proposal Quickly, Cites 'Debt and No Margin'
The FCC should immediately open a new video relay service (VRS) rulemaking sought by providers, Convo Communications said in a filing in docket 03-123. A Convo official told a staffer for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday it was urgent the…
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commission issue an NPRM on "functional equivalency and rate stabilization" for VRS providers followed by expedited comment and decisionmaking. "As an emergent provider operating with increasing debt and no margin, Convo needs to soon understand the Commission's position related to the NPRM," Convo said. The FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Tuesday adopted further planned rate cuts to VRS provider compensation for the funding year running from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016 (see 1506300063). Convo and other VRS providers said the cuts would damage the quality of their VRS services to the deaf and hard of hearing. The VRS providers in April proposed to make enhancements to their services in exchange for an FCC freeze before July 1 on their compensation rates, which have been on a "glide path" down since 2013. But the bureau said it couldn't alter in Tuesday's order the planned rate cuts adopted in a previous FCC order and would address the VRS provider's proposal separately.