The FCC approved NECA’s proposed reimbursement rates, funding requirements and carrier contribution factors for the telecom relay service (TRS) fund for July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005. The Commission approved the recommended Interstate TRS Fund size of $289,325,701 and the carrier contribution factor of 0.00356. It said traditional TRS and IP Relay providers would be compensated at $1.349 per min., speech-to- speech relay service at $1.440 per interstate min., and VRS providers at $7.293 per min.

The FCC refined its Telecom Relay Service (TRS) rules at the Commission meeting Thurs. by: (1) Continuing on an interim basis its per-minute cost recovery system for video relay services and adopting the same methodology for IP relay. (2) Directing the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau to increase its TRS outreach but declining to allow use of the TRS fund to pay for such a campaign. (3) Granting a Sprint petition by declaring that providing access to pay- per-call services through 711 calls is allowed under the FCC’s rules. (4) Denying petitions asking for waiver of the rule that prohibits TRS communications assistants from refusing to handle calls that are part of legal depositions or other state legal proceedings. It also denied petitions seeking “cost parity” between toll calls via payphones made by TRS users and those made by non-TRS users. (5) Partially granted petitions clarifying a requirement that TRS facilities route emergency wireline TRS calls to an “appropriated” PSAP. The FCC asked for public comment on several TRS issues, including the appropriate cost recovery methodology for VRS and whether IP relay and VRS should be mandatory TRS services offered 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Comrs. Copps and Adelstein partially dissented. Copps said he was disappointed that the order affirmed a bureau decision to “slash in half the VRS compensation rate with less than 24 hours notice.” He said he also “found troubling the conclusion that some forms of non-shared language TRS are not eligible for reimbursement,” which he said hurts Latinos. Adelstein praised one part of the order that he said offered support to TRS service providers seeking priority status for restoration in emergency situations. However, he said he also was concerned that the order “declares all non-shared language TRS services to be ‘value-added’ and ineligible for funding, particularly in the case of VRS.”

The FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau reminded states and telecom relay service (TRS) providers the annual summary of consumer TRS complaints is due July 1. It said in 2003, out of more than 30 million calls placed through state relay facilities, only 3,500 complaints were reported alleging a violation of one or more of the Commission’s mandatory minimum standards for TRS. “This number represents that less than [0.01%] of TRS calls… resulted in an alleged violation of required service standards,” the Commission said: “This is good news for TRS users.” But it said there still were “some areas where there is room for improvement.” It said more than 75% of complaints came from the interaction between the calling party and the communications assistant (CA). “We therefore remind TRS providers and state administrators that their CAs must, among other things, be knowledgeable of TRS procedures, follow customer’s instructions and continue to keep callers informed about the progress of their call,” the FCC said.

FCC Chmn. Powell called for timely solutions to problems of access by people with disabilities to emerging IP-enabled technologies. Pushing aside his prepared remarks and talking “from my experience and from my heart” during an FCC Solutions Summit Fri. in Washington, he said there’s been “always the same criticism and problem about policy approach to disability access issues -- it’s always been retrofitted. It’s always been bolted on at the end. And it’s always twice as difficult, because it’s been thought of at the end, after investments have been made, choices have been made, polices have been developed.” He urged the disability community to participate actively in the Commission work on disability issues.

Sprint said it had acquired the Mass. relay contract from Vista Information Technologies to become the contracted provider for Verizon’s Mass. telecom relay services (TRS). Sprint, which has been providing the communications platform for TRS in that state since July 2003, said it selected Communications Services for the Deaf to support the services.

The FCC delayed for a year the requirement that telecom relay service (TRS) providers offer 3-way calling. Some TRS providers said it wasn’t possible for a TRS facility to set up 3-way calls. The agency also raised the carrier contribution factor for July 2003-June 2004 to collect more money for TRS. The National Exchange Carrier Assn., which administers the fund, had told the FCC the interstate fund was facing a shortfall because of growth in use of Video Relay Service and IP Relay.

Unexpectedly fast growth of IP and video relay services (VRS) requires an increase in the Interstate Telecom Relay Service (TRS) fund, the National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) told the FCC in a Feb. 23 letter. NECA said in May it forecast 28% growth for IP and 30% for VRS for the 2003-2004 funding year. However, “actual minutes… significantly outpaced projections and revised growth rates to 79% annually/6.6% monthly for IP and 196% annually/16.34% monthly for VRS,” NECA said. NECA said an increase in the TRS fund to $170.5 million from $115.5 million was needed “to meet the increase in IP and VRS provider payment requirements.”

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., said Fri. it was “befuddled” by an FCC order allowing Qwest to charge toll fees to a paging company, so it remanded the case. At issue was an FCC decision dismissing Mountain Communications’ complaint against Qwest for charging toll fees for the paging company’s calls that originated and terminated in the same calling area but were routed through a point of interconnection (POI) in another local area. The court, in an opinion written by Judge Laurence Silberman, said the FCC had taken what appeared to be the opposite position in a similar case, TRS Wireless v. U S West. Silberman wrote that, in the TRS case, the FCC “rejected a similar effort on the part of [an] LEC to charge a paging carrier for transmitting calls to the paging carrier’s POI, where the POI and the caller are in the same LATA but different local calling areas.” Although the FCC had made a distinction between the 2 cases, the court said “we are befuddled at the Commission’s efforts to explain away its TRS decision; the facts seem -- and are conceded to be -- identical, but the results are opposite.” Judges David Sentelle and Merrick Garland also were on the panel.

Content aggregation company TvHead unveiled the TvHead Games channel for cable TV services. The Los Altos, Cal., company, started by videogame industry executives, said it had signed licensing deals with “major game creators,” and the channel would be provided “as part of a suite of services for cable system operators.” The TvHead Games channel will be “a full-service destination for games enthusiasts that can be deployed as an operator-branded service or as a standalone channel, [and] will offer more than 40 single and multiplayer games at launch in first quarter, 2004, as well as a wide range of community features,” the company said. TvHead said it also would “offer games aggregation services designed to assist cable operators creating their own games services to maximize subscriber use and revenue.” The company said it had signed deals -- terms not disclosed -- with companies including Gamer.tv, Midway Games and PopCap Games. TvHead said it had “the rights to develop a diverse library of brand name titles including award winning online games Diamond Mine and Bookworm, [the] multiplayer game Dinky Bomb and classic arcade hits Rampage, Gauntlet and SmashTV for interactive television delivery.” The company said it now was working with ICTV on development of content for the latter’s HeadendWare centralized digital interactive platform. TvHead CEO Sangita Verma said: “This is the first of several partner [announcements] over the coming months as we rapidly build up our games library.” TvHead Chief Creative Officer Robert Craig, who co-founded the company with Verma, said game revenue via interactive TV was “projected to be as high as $2.7 billion by 2006, [and] interactive television offers cable system operators a way to immediately gain a share of that revenue.” The company said it had “developed patent-pending technologies that enhance interactive television features, including chat and multiplayer gaming.” Verma was gen. mgr. of Midway Games’ handheld business division and dir. of its worldwide syndication. Craig designed and created games for “dozens of gaming platforms starting with the TRS-80 computer, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and expanding to Internet, wireless, location-based systems and interactive television,” TvHead said, adding that he was “the No. 3 hire at Sony Computer Entertainment, [and] helped launch the PlayStation hardware.” TvHead said Craig started his gaming career in 1982 “when he sold his first TRS-80 game at the age of 17 [and], since then, he has worked with several leading game companies including Atari, Sony, Sega, Activision, Data East and Midway Games.”

The FCC proposed an $806,861 fine against Globcom, a Northbrook, Ill., long distance reseller, for not making Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telecom Relay Service (TRS) contributions. The Commission said Tues. that Globcom owed $700,000 to the USF as of Aug. and hadn’t satisfied its obligation to contribute to the TRS Fund, which helps people with hearing or speech disabilities use the telephone system. The agency said Globcom apparently underreported its revenue to the Commission “and at times failed to report revenue information at all.” That information is used by the FCC to calculate carriers’ USF and TRS payments. The FCC Enforcement Bureau said this is the largest fine ever proposed for such violations and FCC Chmn. Powell said it’s “an important step in preserving the integrity of the Universal Service Fund by sending a signal to carriers who shirk their duty to pay their fair share.” The agency said it increased the normal level of fines because “it appears that Globcom deliberately chose not to pay its universal service contributions each month for revenues derived from January 1, 2001, to the present.” The Commission said that despite “numerous monthly communications” from the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC), Globcom had “done nothing to address this matter.” It also ordered Globcom to submit a report in 30 days outlining its plans for coming into compliance with the rules. Globcom can seek a reduction or cancellation of the fine in that 30-day period but the agency warned it wouldn’t take inability to pay as an excuse without federal tax returns, financial statements or other objective documentation.