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.

The FCC adopted interim emergency call handling rules for Internet-based telecommunications relay service (TRS) providers. The late Wednesday order aims to ensure Internet TRS users access to 911 services, pending a permanent fix, it said. The FCC “plans to move forward on adopting a ten-digit numbering plan in an expeditious manner,” it said. The agency seeks to “refresh quickly the record on relay service numbering issues and then plans to hold a stakeholder workshop immediately thereafter,” it said. A final FCC order will address the ten-digit plan second quarter, with implementation “no later than” Dec. 31, the order said. The order is a “much-needed first step” while the Commission arranges a permanent and automated emergency access solution, said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. Adelstein and Commissioner Michael Copps lauded the FCC for committing to a 10-digit plan. Commissioner Deborah Tate also endorsed the order: “While I often advocate a light regulatory touch for Internet-based services, it is essential that critical social goals -- such as TRS -- are implemented in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner across platforms, service providers and specific technologies.” The FCC won’t renew waivers of the emergency call handling requirement for video relay services or IP Relay providers, it said. But the waivers, once set to expire Dec. 31, now will expire after the order becomes effective. The commission terminated the waiver for IP captioned telephone service providers.

The FCC adopted interim emergency call handling rules for Internet-based telecommunications relay service (TRS) providers. The late Wednesday order aims to ensure Internet TRS users access to 911 services, pending a permanent fix, it said. The FCC “plans to move forward on adopting a ten-digit numbering plan in an expeditious manner,” it said. Under the plan, IP relay providers would be required to accept an emergency call and forward it to a designated 10- digit phone number, the commission said. The agency seeks to “refresh quickly the record on relay service numbering issues and then plans to hold a stakeholder workshop immediately thereafter,” it said. A final FCC order will address the ten-digit plan second quarter, with implementation “no later than” Dec. 31, the order said. The order is a “much-needed first step” while the Commission arranges a permanent and automated emergency access solution, said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. Adelstein and Commissioner Michael Copps lauded the FCC for committing to a 10-digit plan. Commissioner Deborah Tate also endorsed the order: “While I often advocate a light regulatory touch for Internet-based services, it is essential that critical social goals -- such as TRS -- are implemented in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner across platforms, service providers and specific technologies.” The FCC won’t renew waivers of the emergency call handling requirement for video relay services or IP Relay providers, it said. But the waivers, once set to expire Dec. 31, now will expire after the order becomes effective. The commission terminated the waiver for IP captioned telephone service providers.

Qwest sought a “limited extension of time” to implement 711-dialing and routing requirements for nomadic VoIP services. The requirements were part of a June order saying interconnected VoIP providers must offer telecom relay services and contribute to the TRS fund (CD June 1 p4). Qwest said it would be able to route VoIP 711 calls to the appropriate TRS center for fixed VoIP locations by April 5, the date the FCC’s reconsideration order becomes effective. “At this time, however, Qwest is not technically able to route a nomadic VoIP 711-dialed call to the ‘appropriate’ relay center,” it said, and won’t be able to until Q1 2009.

The FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau asked for comments on whether IP Speech-to-Speech Service should be deemed a Telecommunications Relay Service eligible for TRS Fund compensation. Comments will be due 30 days after the FCC notice appears in the Federal Register and replies 15 days after that. Hawk Relay sought clarification, calling speech-to-speech a form of relay service that lets speech- disabled people make phone calls, aided by translators. Users communicate with the relay service through the Internet, with translators relaying messages by phone.

Sorenson Communications asked the FCC to put on hold part of a Nov. 19 ban on contact by providers of telecommunications relay services with users. Sorenson, a video relay service provider, said the ban violates First Amendment protections of free speech. The company said if the commission doesn’t act on its request by Feb. 11, it will seek a stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, where Sorenson has filed an appeal. The company said it doesn’t object to the FCC goal of keeping providers from using “improper financial or similar incentives to stimulate TRS demand.” But the ban in paragraphs 95 and 96 of the order goes “beyond these issues and restricts all TRS providers’ contacts with their users.”