The Regulatory Commission of Alaska seeks comment on revised proposed changes to telecom relay service rules, “including the potential costs to private persons” of compliance, the RCA said in a Thursday notice in docket R-19-001. The commission is implementing 2018 amendments to state law including expanding assessment of the surcharge to wireless service and adding more telecom devices to the program (see 1902080026). Comments are due May 17.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission suspended for the third straight year a surcharge funding the Idaho Telecommunications Service Assistance Program (ITSAP), which provides a $2.50 monthly discount on landline and cellphone service for the poor, the PUC said last week. Monthly participation in ITSAP fell, on average, to 1,787 in 2018 from 27,539 in 2010, the PUC said. The number of recipients declined 30 percent from 2017 to 2018, it said. Also, the PUC left unchanged the funding mechanism for the state telecommunications relay service program, which is 2 cents per month on residential and business lines, plus .0002 cent per minute on intrastate calls. TRS usage is declining due to wireless texting and similar internet-based services, the commission said. The relay center handled 10,698 minutes of traffic in 2018, 12 percent less than the year before, it said.

Sorenson gave the FCC suggestions for what information users seeking to self-certify should submit to the telephone relay service user registration database, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. Sorenson met Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre and other staff including from the Office of the Managing Director. “We discussed the possibility of implementing a quarterly process requiring users of certain enterprise accounts to verify that the account is still being used or supervised by the person or department who it was assigned,” the company said.

The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​​

ITTA slammed a Kairos Partners filing on behalf of enterprise users that urged the FCC to continue to prohibit carriers from "identifying" telecom relay service costs as line items on consumer bills to not "stigmatize disabled individuals" (see 1902200049). Kairos "is merely doubling down on the same red herrings, hyperbole, and misreadings of precedent that have characterized their prior filings," emailed the mid-size telco group, which has petitioned the agency for a TRS billing ruling and cited its July 3 reply as addressing criticisms. "ITTA has made it abundantly clear that ITTA is not seeking in this petition to specifically identify on consumers’ bills costs attributable to TRS. Rather, ITTA’s ask is that the Commission issue a declaratory ruling that it is and always has been permissible for a carrier recovering TRS Fund contributions via an end user cost recovery fee line item (or the like) on customers’ bills to include TRS, among other references, in the line item description. This properly balances Commission precedent both with respect to TRS and Truth-in-Billing."

The FCC should continue to bar carriers from identifying telecom relay service costs as line items on consumer bills, said 3M, Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Office Depot, Sears and other enterprise users in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. They said the FCC could soon rule on an ITTA petition "that could alter" the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and "the civil rights of all disabled individuals," including "the deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired communities." ITTA plus AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink "are pressuring the FCC" to overturn a rule prohibiting carriers "from identifying the cost of [TRS] (a Title IV, ADA service) as a fee, surcharge or line-item on customer invoices," the enterprise users said. The ADA "prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities," they wrote. "It would be a violation of the ADA to stigmatize disabled individuals as a 'cost burden' by identifying the cost of providing an ADA service on any consumer invoice."

Commissioners approved 5-0 a Connect America Fund order to transition from legacy, Phase I price-cap incumbent telco support to CAF II support won at auction last year. As some expected (see 1902130054), the FCC stuck to a draft decision to decline a USTelecom proposal for interim voice support in certain areas, though it did make tweaks in response to ILEC requests. At Thursday's meeting, members also unanimously approved an IP captioned telephone service order, Further NPRM and order aimed at enhancing program management, combating abuse and improving emergency call management.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska seeks comment on changes to telecom relay service rules, the RCA said last week as it opened docket R-19-001. The commission is implementing 2018 amendments to state law including expanding assessment of the surcharge to wireless service and adding more telecom devices to the program, said a Thursday notice. Comments are due March 11.

Tidal Wave Telecom asked the FCC to waive rules barring "non-Video Relay Service" providers from getting access to a telecom relay service numbering directory. TWT wants such access to "deploy technology solutions," including to enable jails and prisons "to identify incoming and outgoing VRS calls received and made by deaf or hard-of-hearing ... inmates where such monitoring is permitted," it petitioned, posted Wednesday in docket 03-123. It said the request is similar to VTC Secure's, approved in January 2017 (see 1701190038), and will "decrease costs and abuse of the TRS fund, increase security at correctional facilities, and promote lawful communications."

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​