FCC Order Sets New Compensation Rates for Telecom Relay Services
The FCC adopted a 2019-2020 funding requirement of $1.4 billion to compensate telephone carriers for telecommunications relay services used by persons who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind or have speech difficulties, it said in a docket 03-123 order Friday. It also…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
ordered new compensation rates, effective Monday, of $3.11 per minute for traditional TRS, $4.24 for speech-to-speech relay, and $2.28 for captioned telephone service. Separate rates were set for IP-enabled services (see 1905290047). The order also sets a carrier contribution factor of .028 for FY 2019-2020, starting Monday. A Friday statement from Chairman Ajit Pai said that recent changes in the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Services Fund will save nearly $409 million over the coming funding year, and spending for the fund is expected to decline for the first time since 2014 "even as overall TRS minutes increase."