The House Communications Subcommittee approved Internet accessibility legislation in a voice vote Wednesday afternoon, with a manager’s amendment by Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. Boucher said he hoped to offer another manager’s amendment later to address “remaining points of difference,” including those related to video description rules. Meanwhile, disabilities rights advocates were upset after learning the amendment cut out a provision that would subsidize broadband services and equipment for people with disabilities.

The House Communications Subcommittee approved Internet accessibility legislation in a voice vote Wednesday afternoon, with a manager’s amendment by Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. Boucher said he hoped to offer another manager’s amendment later to address “remaining points of difference,” including those related to video description rules. Meanwhile, disabilities rights advocates were upset after learning the amendment cut out a provision that would subsidize broadband services and equipment for people with disabilities.

The FCC adopted video relay services (VRS) rates that are higher than those proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association. The rates will be in effect from this July to next June. Providers under Tier 1 will be compensated at about $6.24 per minute, Tier 2 providers at $6.23 and at $5.07 for providers under Tier 3, an FCC order Monday said. The rate was established for an interim period of one year while the FCC seeks comment on a related inquiry, the order said. Industry officials had expressed concern over the rates proposed by NECA, which some had expected the FCC to codify in an order (CD June 10 p7). The commission also issued a notice of inquiry to address issues of fair compensation, VRS user data collection and other factors affecting market structure.

The video relay service (VRS) rates suggested to the FCC for the 2010-2011 fund year were opposed in comments from the hearing-impaired community and VRS providers. Last month the commission issued a public notice seeking comment on the payment formula and fund size estimate for the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Services Fund. The formula was submitted by the National Exchange Carrier Association for July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011. The three-tiered rates are based on “the 2009 average actual historical cost data submitted to NECA by VRS providers,” the commission said. In the notice, the rates are $5.77 for up to 50,000 minutes under Tier I; $6.03 for monthly minutes between 50,0001 and 500,000 for Tier II; and under Tier III, $3.89 for monthly minutes over 500,000.

Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission voted 4-0 Thursday to allow AT&T to increase its base rate for traditional telecom relay service. Citing labor costs, the telco has sought since September to charge the state 28 percent more for traditional speech-to-speech and Spanish relay services, and for related intrastate calls. Commissioners passed a motion by Chairman James Cawley and Vice Chairman Tyrone Christy allowing AT&T an 18 percent increase in its base TRS rate. An AT&T relay center in western Pennsylvania employs about 170 people, Christy noted: “We must strive to keep the current TRS center in Pennsylvania so that these key jobs and essential services are provided through this Commonwealth’s resources."

The FCC issued a declaratory ruling reaffirming rules and policies on video relay services reimbursement and calling practices. The Telecommunications Relay Services Fund “can’t be used to support practices that are designed only to increase payments to VRS providers, rather than providing a necessary service for people who need it,” said Joel Gurin, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau chief. The “action emphasized that VRS calls made or arranged to generate per-minute fees for the providers are not and have never been compensable from the TRS Fund,” the commission said in a news release. Video relay services calls within the United States can’t be compensated from the fund. The commission also emphasized that the cost of calls made by or to employees of VRS providers and their subcontractors are compensable as a business expense. The ruling also attempts to stop abuse of voice carry over “to make free long distance calls between two people using their voices.”

The FCC extended until July 1 a waiver of mandatory minimum standards for telecom relay service related to: (1) one-line Voice Carry Over, VCO-to-teletype (TTY) and VCO-to- VCO; (2) one-line Hearing Carry Over, HCO-to-TTY and HCO-to- HCO; (3) call release; (4) pay-per-call 900 calls; (5) operator-assisted and long distance calls; (6) equal access to interexchange carrier; (7) Speech-to-Speech. In an order Thursday, the Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus also extended a waiver of certain minimum standards for default Internet-based TRS providers that are unable to meet the standards for newly registered iTRS users that own customer premises equipment built by their previous provider. That waiver also expires July 1, unless the commission tackles pending petitions regarding CPE portability first, the bureaus said.

Responding to problems experienced by telecom relay service users completing point-to-point calls using toll-free numbers, the FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau temporarily waived a rule requiring providers to redirect users’ old toll-free numbers to their new 10-digit geographic numbers in the service management system 800 database. The order, adopted and released Friday, is effective for four months. Advocates for people who are deaf and some providers had notified the commission of the issue (CD Dec 3 p12). The FCC also granted a request by consumer groups to restore working, assigned video relay service and IP-based relay toll-free numbers to the Internet-based TRS numbering directory that were removed in August. “These steps will ensure that all calls -- including point-to-point calls to toll free numbers -- can be routed while the Commission considers toll free number policies in the context of Internet based TRS,” the bureau said. Earlier, in a call Wednesday with Wireline Bureau Associate Chief Nicholas Alexander, the consumer advocates said they supported opening a rulemaking to develop a means to reduce toll-free number use and eliminate abuse, according to an ex-parte filing by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

The FCC said it’s tightening oversight of video relay services (VRS)after the Justice Department charged 26 people with stealing more than $50 million total from the video relay service program. After a joint investigation by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FCC Office of Inspector General, FBI agents and postal inspectors made arrests Thursday in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Maryland, Justice said. Meanwhile, VRS provider Purple Communications said it expects its Q3 revenue to dive $7.2 million from a year earlier unless the FCC loosens its compensation rules.

FCC rules should “specifically and expressly” address internal use of video relay service by providers, and use of VRS for conference calling, CSDVRS said. In a petition Tuesday, the VRS company urged the agency to begin a rulemaking. The rules “as currently defined are, in many respects, limiting to the functional equivalency mandate, and can invite fraud on the Interstate TRS Fund,” the company said.