Neustar asked the FCC to approve the company's planned sale to Aerial Investors, a company formed by Golden Gate Private Equity. The privatization should be approved "because the nature of Neustar’s business and its day-to-day management will not change, and Neustar will remain impartial and neutral after the change to new ownership," said a filing Wednesday in docket 92-237, noting the company is administrator of the North American numbering plan, local number portability (LNP), pooling and telecom relay service numbering. "To ensure that Neustar remains impartial and neutral, its new ownership has agreed to implement the Neutrality Plan ... pursuant to which the entire ownership interest in Neustar will be placed in a voting trust controlled by Golden Gate Capital, which is unaffiliated with any U.S. telecommunications service provider, interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol provider, or internet-based TRS provider." The sale, which already received antitrust clearance and could be reviewed by the executive branch's "Team Telecom," isn't expected to slow the LNP administrator transition to iconectiv (see 1612140062). Meanwhile, North American Portability Management filed its latest monthly status report on the LNP administrator transition in docket 09-109. NAPM said it, PwC and iconectiv had executed a draft four-way nondisclosure agreement provided by Neustar that will facilitate transition meetings (see 1701180049). Neustar asked the FCC to reverse a bureau letter siding with NAPM in a dispute over those terms (see 1701190030).

FCC staff granted VTCSecure's petition for a waiver to allow it, as a provider of direct video calling customer-support services, to get access to the telecom relay service (TRS) numbering directory. The Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureau chiefs also approved a VTCSecure "request for a declaratory ruling that video relay service (VRS) providers must route and connect all direct voice, video and text calls" between phone numbers in the TRS directory. "Allowing VTCSecure access to the TRS Numbering Directory will enable individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have a speech disability to move closer to obtaining the functional equivalency Congress envisioned in enacting Title IV of the [Americans with Disabilities Act]," said the bureaus' order in docket 10-51 listed in Thursday's Daily Digest. VTCSecure's petition said its direct sign-language support service allows the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with certain customer-service personnel fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), rather than going through sign-language interpreters who relay communications to hearing customer-service personnel (see 1607070003). Deaf advocates and Gallaudet University backed the petition, while VRS providers opposed it (see 1608180036 and 1609020033). "We agree with Gallaudet University that, “[w]ith direct video communications, especially if the call takers are members of the deaf community themselves, the risk for mistranslations between ASL and English is eliminated, and thus the risk for costly and frustrating misunderstandings is also greatly reduced, if not eliminated," said the bureau order. FCC Republicans and Sorenson Communications, the biggest VRS provider, didn't comment.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler sees important next steps for the agency on accessible communications, he told Reps. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. “We plan to encourage additional government agencies and businesses to adopt DVC [direct video communications] to improve communications services for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities and further reduce expenditures from the TRS [telecom relay service] Fund,” Wheeler told them in a Dec. 20 letter, released this week. “The Commission also continues to move forward with its efforts to achieve interoperability of video communications for people with hearing and speech disabilities so they can use VRS [video relay service] anytime with anyone using any VRS provider. … We plan to use these [prototype video call routing platform and an experimental] software tools to verify VRS provider compliance with FCC interoperability standards and ensure that consumers with hearing and speech disabilities can fully utilize modern video communication devices given to them by VRS providers.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler sees important next steps for the agency on accessible communications, he told Reps. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. “We plan to encourage additional government agencies and businesses to adopt DVC [direct video communications] to improve communications services for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities and further reduce expenditures from the TRS [telecom relay service] Fund,” Wheeler told them in a Dec. 20 letter, released this week. “The Commission also continues to move forward with its efforts to achieve interoperability of video communications for people with hearing and speech disabilities so they can use VRS [video relay service] anytime with anyone using any VRS provider. … We plan to use these [prototype video call routing platform and an experimental] software tools to verify VRS provider compliance with FCC interoperability standards and ensure that consumers with hearing and speech disabilities can fully utilize modern video communication devices given to them by VRS providers.”

VTCSecure certification to offer video relay service (VRS) and IP captioned telecom service (IPCTS) would improve service for people with hearing disabilities and ease pressure on a subsidy fund, the company told FCC officials. The company said it "believes that its technology platform that includes Real-Time Text, Simple Message Service and automated speech to text services will provide the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community greater functional equivalence and innovative new services at a lower cost to the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (TRS)." CEO Peter Hayes "stressed that VTCSecure's technology would allow a new VRS and IP CTS provider to offer its services under the TRS Fund reimbursement glide path" adopted in a 2013 order driving down VRS compensation rates, the company said in filings (here, here) Thursday in docket 10-51 on meetings it had with an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai and a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau official. Citing open-source software in VTCSecure's network platform and an "endpoint" using the commission's accessible communications service app (see 1509180029), Hayes said the company could "facilitate the interoperability and common network platform goals that the Commission also adopted in the VRS Reform Order." VTCSecure has petitioned for a waiver to provide a direct sign-language support service that allows the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate directly with certain customer-service personnel fluent in sign language, rather than going through sign-language interpreters who relay communications to customer-service personnel (see 1607070003). It has been supported by deaf advocates and opposed by VRS providers (see 1608180036 and 1609020033).

VTCSecure certification to offer video relay service (VRS) and IP captioned telecom service (IPCTS) would improve service for people with hearing disabilities and ease pressure on a subsidy fund, the company told FCC officials. The company said it "believes that its technology platform that includes Real-Time Text, Simple Message Service and automated speech to text services will provide the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community greater functional equivalence and innovative new services at a lower cost to the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (TRS)." CEO Peter Hayes "stressed that VTCSecure's technology would allow a new VRS and IP CTS provider to offer its services under the TRS Fund reimbursement glide path" adopted in a 2013 order driving down VRS compensation rates, the company said in filings (here, here) Thursday in docket 10-51 on meetings it had with an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai and a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau official. Citing open-source software in VTCSecure's network platform and an "endpoint" using the commission's accessible communications service app (see 1509180029), Hayes said the company could "facilitate the interoperability and common network platform goals that the Commission also adopted in the VRS Reform Order." VTCSecure has petitioned for a waiver to provide a direct sign-language support service that allows the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate directly with certain customer-service personnel fluent in sign language, rather than going through sign-language interpreters who relay communications to customer-service personnel (see 1607070003). It has been supported by deaf advocates and opposed by VRS providers (see 1608180036 and 1609020033).

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

The FCC has overcompensated the largest video relay service (VRS) provider by about $1 billion since 2008, says a former commission investigator who wrote a 2010 internal report that was disputed and shelved. Sorenson Communications collected upward of $500 million more than it would have from 2008 to 2010 if the FCC had adopted staff proposals in 2007 to enforce its own compensation standard establishing allowable costs and profits, according to the report, provided us by Stanley Scheiner, who authored it for the Office of Inspector General. Although the FCC has cut rates closer to costs since then, Sorenson collected another $500 million in estimated excess profit from 2010 to 2016, Scheiner told us.

Comments are due Nov. 9, replies Nov. 16 on a telecom industry petition for FCC reconsideration of a policy statement instituting treble damages for violations of rules for payments to USF and other funding programs. The pleading cycle was triggered Wednesday by Federal Register publication of an FCC notice, which created docket 16-330. "The policy statement adopts a new treble damages formula for calculating forfeitures for telecommunications service providers' failure: (1) to timely pay their assessments for the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, local number portability (LNP), North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and regulatory fee programs; and (2) to file data required to assess payment obligations for these programs," said a petition filed March 6, 2015, by CTIA, NCTA, Comptel (now Incompas) and USTelecom (see 1503310052). The FCC's goals are laudable, the groups said, but the policy statement must be vacated because it wasn't promulgated with notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act. On substance, the treble damages policy is arbitrary and capricious, reflecting "a results-oriented effort by the Commission to drive the relevant forfeiture amounts as high as possible," said the groups, which pressed the agency in August to open a docket and seek comment on their petition (see 1608050061).

Comments are due Nov. 9, replies Nov. 16 on a telecom industry petition for FCC reconsideration of a policy statement instituting treble damages for violations of rules for payments to USF and other funding programs. The pleading cycle was triggered Wednesday by Federal Register publication of an FCC notice, which created docket 16-330. "The policy statement adopts a new treble damages formula for calculating forfeitures for telecommunications service providers' failure: (1) to timely pay their assessments for the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund, local number portability (LNP), North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and regulatory fee programs; and (2) to file data required to assess payment obligations for these programs," said a petition filed March 6, 2015, by CTIA, NCTA, Comptel (now Incompas) and USTelecom (see 1503310052). The FCC's goals are laudable, the groups said, but the policy statement must be vacated because it wasn't promulgated with notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act. On substance, the treble damages policy is arbitrary and capricious, reflecting "a results-oriented effort by the Commission to drive the relevant forfeiture amounts as high as possible," said the groups, which pressed the agency in August to open a docket and seek comment on their petition (see 1608050061).