GlobalVRS asked the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to extend up to 90 days its waiver of commission rules on at-home video relay service call handling, said an ex parte letter posted Monday in docket 03-123. It sought an extension of up to 90 days of the rules for equivalent support and equipping home workstations with monitoring technology. The waivers are scheduled to expire on March 31. GlobalVRS said it's "prepared to comply" with the rules by then, but a waiver would allow it to "ensure fully functional equipment deployment" and complete "on-site workstation inspections to confirm compliance." The provider also sought the extension to test a "newly sourced software application that integrates ongoing monitoring and supporting data collection."

3Way Video Relay Service submitted an application to the FCC to become a licensed video relay service provider funded by the Telecom Relay Service Fund, per an application posted Monday in docket 03-123. The company said it has one call center and had its VRS platform developed by Quantum Services Group. 3Way Video Relay Service will use Monday.com to "maintain VRS user demographic information," it said. The company also provided details about its communications assistants' employment requirements, TRS compliance, and interoperability.

T-Mobile and Sprint urged the FCC to extend a waiver of speed-of-answer requirements in agency telecommunications relay services rules. “While the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic are certainly improving, the ongoing impact of the pandemic on T-Mobile Accessibility’s TRS operations will continue beyond March 31 ... when the current TRS waivers are set to expire,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. “While T-Mobile Accessibility and its vendors have made significant strides to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, adequate staffing continues to be problematic given the economic conditions created by the pandemic, including a tight labor market.” T-Mobile spoke with staff from FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The provider redacted data in its filing and asked for confidential treatment.

The FCC posted a report Friday on telecommunications relay services on videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex, approved Feb. 24 by its Disability Advisory Committee (see 2202240064). “The Commission should either directly convene or encourage the convening of TRS providers and video conferencing platform vendors, with the input of accessibility advocates and academic experts, to facilitate the development of an application programming interface (API) or other standardized technical mechanism to allow TRS providers to directly interconnect to video conferencing platforms,” the report recommends: “Work with all stakeholders to ensure that TRS users can use standard user interfaces on all video conferencing platforms to join their preferred TRS provider to a video conference, in realtime.”

Hamilton Relay told the FCC it made "substantial progress" in resolving call takeover issues for its telecom relay services, per a letter Tuesday in docket 03-123. It resolved "all remaining call takeover issues" for one-line and two-line captioned telephone services, traditional TTY-based telecom relay service, and most web and wireless IP CTS offerings. Hamilton hasn't resolved call takeover issues for one web-based IP CTS service because it "presents unique challenges," it said. The company sought a "brief additional extension" of answer performance requirements for traditional TRS and speech-to-speech relay, citing "severe labor shortages." It also sought a two-month extension on its speed of answer waivers for CTS and IP CTS, noting it anticipates fully implementing automatic speech recognition in "approximately two months."

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved reports Thursday on real-time text (RTT) on wireline networks and telecommunications relay services on videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. All FCC meetings have used a video platform since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic almost two years ago.

Telecom relay service providers disagreed about Sorenson Communications’ petition for declaratory ruling that video relay service providers be allowed to recover the cost of service-related tasks, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-51. IP captioned telephone service provider Hamilton backed the petition and asked that it be extended to IP CTS providers. All "costs associated with an installation/training/registration visit should be reimbursable from the TRS Fund," said IP CTS provider ClearCaptions. VRS providers Convo Communications and GlobalVRS opposed the petition. Sorenson's request "constitutes a thinly veiled effort to increase its revenues while retaining its market dominance and captive users through continued leveraging of its proprietary equipment," GlobalVRS said. Convo asked the FCC to consider waiting to decide until at least "after it determines Ariel’s application to acquire control of Sorenson" (see 2112200045).

Industry and deaf and hard of hearing advocates asked the FCC to let IP relay providers recoup costs for outreach and marketing to users from the Telecom Relay Service Fund, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 03-123 (see 2108050038). The move to establish a new compensation methodology stemmed from a 2018 petition for rulemaking by T-Mobile, the sole remaining IP relay provider.

Disagreement continued between inmate calling service providers and advocates on the ICS rate-making process, in replies posted Monday in docket 12-375 (see 2109290074). Permanent caps “should be substantially lower than the current interim caps,” said the Prison Policy Initiative, asking the FCC to “prioritize the issue of USF relief for ICS customers.” PPI finds “that facility size does not correlate to costs and should be considered by the FCC as a rebuttal to the ICS providers’ argument that size impacts costs,” said 33 organizations led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Make a list of ancillary fees that can and can’t be charged to ICS users, said NCIC. The fee caps the FCC previously adopted “have been subverted by certain ICS providers,” it said. All security and surveillance costs “are not inextricably intertwined with telecom costs,” said Worth Rises. Global Tel*Link said they’re “an integral part of ICS.” Consider a "brief pause" on additional reform to "allow for the collection of accurate and reliable data," said Pay Tel. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates backed comments opposing security and surveillance costs being included in the rate-setting process. Require providers refund account holders after inactivity or an incarcerated person’s release, said the Wright Petitioners, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, United Church of Christ and Public Knowledge. The record “unanimously confirms the commission’s legal authority under Section 225 of the [Communications] Act extends to incarcerated people with disabilities,” said deaf and hard of hearing advocates led by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. ICS providers and facilities “can readily provide modern forms of TRS, including VRS,” the groups said. ZP Better Together recommended a registration system for VRS providers to create an account to provide services to a correctional facility.

Sorenson Communications and its CaptionCall agreed to reimburse the Telecom Relay Service Fund $28 million and pay a $12.5 million fine for violating TRS rules on incentives and reimbursement filings, in a consent decree with the FCC Enforcement Bureau. It’s the “largest recovery of monies for the TRS Fund and the largest fine for violations of the TRS rules,” the bureau said Friday.