MachineGenius Questions Deaf Advocates' ASR Concerns; Hamilton Presses Its IP CTS Views
MachineGenius took issue with concerns of advocates for deaf consumers about an FCC order, declaratory ruling and notices draft on IP captioned telephone service (CTS) that seeks to authorize automated speech recognition (ASR) technology. "Many of their expressed concerns are…
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poorly substantiated," said a filing posted Thursday in docket 13-24. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. (TDI) and others had said (see 1805300048) the draft's "approach of delegating to the Bureau the responsibility of applying the existing TRS [telecommunications relay service] minimum standards to IP CTS applicants proposing to use ASR does not acknowledge that the minimum standards are replete with explicit references to human communications assistants (CAs)," said MachineGenius, which is seeking to be certified an IP CTS provider. "On the contrary, the Declaratory Ruling explicitly and extensively addresses the role of [CAs], and the fact that the CA role may be limited or nonexistent in an ASR-based IP CTS solution, concluding that 'the definition of IP CTS in our rules does not specify how captions must be generated.'" The draft "observes that 'use of [ASR] technology for IP CTS without CA involvement does not fundamentally change the functional role of the service.' ... In this context [,] the Declaratory Ruling authorizes the approval of ASR-based IP CTS applications." TDI didn't comment. Hamilton Relay pressed the FCC to move all draft ARS and notice of inquiry issues to the Further NPRM, and to freeze the IP CTS rate at $1.75 per minute for two years if the current rate methodology is junked. Hamilton is concerned about the draft declaratory ruling's "failure to address emergency call handling in an ASR environment," said a filing on a meeting with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. "Legal problems [are] raised by the determination in the draft Declaratory Ruling that ASR is a reimbursable form of IP CTS."