The FCC adopted the National Exchange Carrier Association’s annual report on the telecommunications relay services fund, it said late Tuesday. NECA projected an $805.5 million TRS fund for the July 2008-June 2009 rate year (CD May 5 p8).

An FCC order on a 10-digit numbering plan for IP relay services most closely resembles a system pitched by AT&T and GoAmerica, but also incorporates elements of other proposals, the FCC said. The order, released late Tuesday, recommends a single database of phone numbers and IP addresses, maintained by a neutral party. Access would be limited to IP relay providers, the FCC said. But the FCC didn’t throw out proposals by NeuStar and CSDVRS. “We find that no single Industry Proposal represents the best implementation of a centralized numbering directory mechanism, but instead find that a combination of different elements” is appropriate, the FCC said.

Internet-based speech-to-speech services should qualify for Telecom Relay Service fund subsidies, the FCC tentatively concluded late Wednesday in a notice of proposed rulemaking adopted. Speech-to-speech, a TRS service, is used by people with speech disabilities. The FCC asked if IP STS should be compensated at the same rate as non-IP STS services, and for comment on how to improve provision of STS. This includes whether to extend to 20 minutes from 15 the minimum a relay operator must stay on a call before switching to another operator. The notice also seeks comment on ways to improve outreach associated with STS, the FCC said.

The FCC adopted a 10-digit numbering plan for Internet- based relay services for the deaf, the commission said late Wednesday. The press release gave no technical specifics, but the original draft order most closely resembled a proposal by AT&T and GoAmerica (CD June 9 p7). Once it is implemented, telecom relay service users will be able to use 10-digit phone numbers to call and be called by hearing and TRS users, the FCC said. Relay users will be able to buy service from any IP Relay company, and port numbers from one provider to another, it said. The order requires providers to obtain and maintain information on their users’ physical locations, and to automatically route emergency calls to use the information to route them the appropriate emergency service authorities. The FCC previously imposed that obligation on interconnected VoIP carriers, it said. IP Relay providers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the order, the FCC said. As expected, the FCC attached a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on the potential application of slamming, CPNI and other related rules to IP relay.

FCC commissioners are unlikely to oppose a proposed order circulated on a 10-digit numbering plan for IP-based telecom relay services, said an industry source close to the proceeding. “The commission has a strong interest in making sure that the new 10-digit plan gets rolled out promptly,” the source said. It doesn’t seem that the commissioners will vote before the June 12 meeting at which the order is set for consideration, the person said. But an FCC source said an early vote is “certainly possible,” not only on the 10-digit plan but also on the other two wireline items set for the meeting. They include a proposed order to extend indefinitely FCC enforcement of the federal do-not-call list and a notice of proposed rulemaking about providing TRS speech-to-speech services. Of three 10-digit plan proposals, a pitch by AT&T and GoAmerica (CD June 2 p10) most closely resembles the draft. GoAmerica and the sources of the other two proposals, NeuStar and CSDVRS, are doing “heavy lobbying” -- but the commissioners and their staff “have been intentionally vague and not going into specifics” in meetings with industry, said another industry official close to the proceeding. That’s not unusual, the source said. “They need to be careful not to do anything that could derail their internal process.”

The FCC clarified “overly broad” rules meant to protect Telecommunications Relay Service users from unwanted marketing and lobbying. In a declaratory ruling issued late Wednesday, the FCC gave examples of settings in which interstate relay service providers may use TRS databases to contact users. But the extra guidance fails to eliminate a double standard for relay and non-relay users, said an official at TRS provider GoAmerica.

Telecommunications relay services may keep using consumer or call databases to contact TRS users until May 28, the FCC said, extending a stay on two paragraphs in the 2007 TRS Cost Recovery Declaratory Ruling that restricted such use. The FCC granted a 90-day stay February 7, but extended it 21 days more to give the commission “sufficient time to complete its review in the matter,” the FCC said.

Consumers will use 30 percent more video relay service minutes in the July 2008-June 2009 rate year than in the same period last year, the National Exchange Carrier Association said in filing its annual telecommunications relay services fund report to the FCC. NECA, the Interstate TRS Fund Administrator, expects consumers to use more than 103 million VRS minutes and about 74 million IP relay minutes. NECA projects a $805.5 million TRS fund, including $657 million for VRS. NECA urged a carrier contribution factor of 0.01012, set by dividing the $805.5 million fund by $79.6 billion in calendar 2007 interstate and international revenue. Pending FCC approval, NECA will start billing carriers and disbursing funds to relay service providers this July.

A telecom relay services provider overstated expenses on annual reports to the National Exchange Carrier Association, said an audit commissioned by the FCC Inspector General. The reports are used to determine the amount of subsidies TRS providers get monthly through the TRS Fund administered by NECA. Hands On Video Relay Services overstated expenses by about $475,000 -- 10 percent of total actual costs -- for seven line items that were investigated in the VRS provider’s 2005 Relay Service Data Request form, said auditor KPMG. In addition, HOVRS overstated by about $850,000 -- 25 percent of total actual costs -- on six line items in the 2004 RSDR, said KPMG. And HOVRS couldn’t substantiate expenses reflected on their 2003 and 2004 RSDRs, the auditor said. HOVRS disagreed with a draft of the audit. The draft audit “appears to be based upon certain misunderstandings of HOVRS’s accounting system, the process for the preparation of the annual report to NECA and the NECA rate calculation methodology,” the VRS provider said. The audit’s finding that HOVRS in 2005 reported more minutes to NECA than it documented is “incorrect,” failing to “account for the VRS minutes that HOVRS provided to AT&T as a subcontractor to AT&T,” it said: “When those minutes are accounted for there is no discrepancy.” FCC IG Kent Nilsson sent the final report to the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau on March 31. HOVRS didn’t return a request for comment.

The FCC extended industry-wide waivers related to 711 routing on interconnected VoIP, as Qwest and Verizon asked. Last October, VoIP carriers got a six-month waiver of a rule requiring they route the inbound leg of a 711 call to an “appropriate TRS provider.” They also got a six-month waiver of a mandate to install a system for automatically and immediately calling an appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) upon receiving an emergency 711 call from interconnected VoIP. In a Friday order, the FCC extended the waivers to March 31, 2009. The VoIP carrier waiver applies only to 711 callers whose phone numbers may not reflect their location, the FCC said. And TRS providers with no automatic system for sending interconnected VoIP calls to the right PSAP “must implement a manual system for doing so, to the extent feasible, that accomplishes the proper routing of emergency 711-dialed calls as efficiently as possible,” the FCC said.