FCC Staff Adopts New TRS Rates, Provisionally Extends VRS Rates as Work Continues
FCC staff adopted telecom relay service compensation rates for the funding year that began Saturday, while keeping existing video relay service rates until the commission implements new rates, which Sorenson Communications and rival, smaller VRS providers have hotly contested. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also adopted a $1.328 billion funding requirement for the TRS Fund and an assessment factor of 2.29 percent of interstate and international end user revenue for telecom carriers and other providers contributing to the fund, said the order released Friday in docket 03-123 and listed in Monday's Daily Digest.
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The per-minute compensation rates for interstate and internet-based TRS services, other than VRS, effective July 1, are "(1) for interstate traditional TRS, $2.9186; (2) for interstate speech-to-speech relay service (STS), $4.0496; (3) for interstate captioned telephone service (CTS) and Internet Protocol captioned telephone service (IP CTS), $1.9467; and (4) for IP Relay, $1.3350," said the order. It said the rates were based on TRS fund administrator Rolka Loube Associates' recommendations.
The order extended the current VRS rates until the effective date of new rates to be established by the commission. For providers "with more than 500,000 monthly minutes, the per-minute VRS compensation rates are: $4.06 for minutes that fall within Tier I (a provider’s first 500,000 monthly minutes); $4.06 for minutes that fall within Tier II (a provider’s second 500,000 monthly minutes); and $3.49 for minutes that fall within Tier III (a provider’s monthly minutes in excess of 1,000,000)," the order said. For VRS providers with 500,000 or fewer monthly minutes, the rate is $4.82.
FCC staff appears to be reworking a draft VRS order to address Sorenson concerns, said an industry representative: "They are still likely to re-circulate and vote soon, although the time pressure is somewhat relieved." Sorenson last week criticized the proposals of ZVRS, parent of CSDVRS and Purple Communications, as seeking "de facto provider-specific VRS rates, both through its proposed tier rates and volume levels and in its contention that it must be permitted to 'double-dip' the tiers by applying them separately to each of its operating subsidiaries" (see 1706290029).
Convo Communications lauded the FCC for "diligently" conducting the VRS rulemaking but voiced a sense of urgency. "It's our understanding that the FCC plans to promptly resume its deliberations on the VRS rates this week," said Jeff Rosen, general counsel of Convo, one of the two smallest providers. "It is critical that the FCC establish the final rate structure in the next week so that Convo and other VRS providers timely have clarity about the allocations for the costs of providing relay services and can more efficiently plan their operations." He said the FCC has Rolka Loube information that smaller providers are being compensated below their costs, so any delay could be problematic. "The current undercompensation provides good justification for the FCC to apply the new rates retroactively, to allow the smaller providers to repay debts incurred to survive the ratemaking period and to allow them to invest to grow and provide customers with additional beneficial innovations," Rosen said, noting Convo hopes the focus can soon turn to the pending rulemaking on VRS service quality metrics.