The FCC asked states to file by Oct. 1 if they want to continue running their own telecom relay service (TRS) programs. Current five-year certifications will expire July 25, 2018, and while there's no deadline for seeking recertification, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau requested applications be filed by Oct. 1 to give the commission time to review them, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 03-123. The PN said the bureau would seek comment on applications.

The FCC set a new four-year schedule for video relay service compensation rates, effective from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2021, that will cut the rate covering some calling minutes of Sorenson Communications, the largest provider. The commission order released Thursday set a four-tier VRS rate structure, following up on the 2013-2017 schedule that drove down rates. As of June 30, for providers with fewer than 500,000 monthly minutes, the rate was $4.82 per minute. For other providers, the per-minute rate was: for Tier I (first 500,000 monthly minutes), $4.06; for Tier II (second 500,000 monthly minutes), $4.06; and for Tier III (monthly minutes exceeding 1 million), $3.49.

FCC staff adopted telecom relay service compensation rates for the funding year that began Saturday, while keeping existing video relay service rates until the commission implements new rates, which Sorenson Communications and rival, smaller VRS providers have hotly contested. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also adopted a $1.328 billion funding requirement for the TRS Fund and an assessment factor of 2.29 percent of interstate and international end user revenue for telecom carriers and other providers contributing to the fund, said the order released Friday in docket 03-123 and listed in Monday's Daily Digest.

FCC staff adopted telecom relay service compensation rates for the funding year that began Saturday, while keeping existing video relay service rates until the commission implements new rates, which Sorenson Communications and rival, smaller VRS providers have hotly contested. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also adopted a $1.328 billion funding requirement for the TRS Fund and an assessment factor of 2.29 percent of interstate and international end user revenue for telecom carriers and other providers contributing to the fund, said the order released Friday in docket 03-123 and listed in Monday's Daily Digest.

Sorenson Communications criticized ZVRS video relay service proposals to the FCC as seeking "de facto provider-specific VRS rates, both through its proposed tier rates and volume levels and in its contention that it must be permitted to 'double-dip' the tiers by applying them separately to each of its operating subsidiaries." Sorenson was reacting to filings this month in docket 10-51 by ZVRS, parent of CSDVRS and Purple Communications. ZVRS cited no commission precedent permitting "competitors offering the same services in the same geographic areas to charge different rates when the only ascertainable difference in underlying costs is that one provider is more efficient," said a Sorenson filing posted Thursday. "Yet that is exactly what ZVRS proposes -- that the Commission adopt rate tiers constructed deliberately to provide higher compensation to ZVRS, the second largest operator of VRS across the country, even though the cost differences on which ZVRS bases its request are entirely related to efficiency, i.e., claimed economies of scale." Sorenson said there's "simply no way that ZVRS’ plea for special treatment based on its own inefficient cost structure can be reconciled with [Communications Act] Section 225’s requirement that TRS [telecom relay service] be provided 'in the most efficient manner.'" ZVRS didn't comment. A draft FCC order would set new VRS compensation rates; the current rates expire Friday (see 1706280038).

An FCC draft order would set new video relay service compensation rates, a commission official and industry representative told us Wednesday. The agency's four-year schedule of VRS rate reductions expires June 30, and providers have offered conflicting proposals.

The FCC is still considering how to address rates for video relay services and other telecom relay services, with the VRS/TRS funding year expiring June 30, parties to the proceeding told us. "As far as I can tell, they're still trying to figure out what they're going to do," said an industry representative Wednesday. Both Sorenson Communications and smaller VRS rivals -- which have made conflicting rate proposals -- are concerned about possible agency actions. "We are continuing to work to resolve the issues," an FCC spokesman emailed.

States and interstate telecom relay service providers must submit annual consumer complaint log summaries to the FCC, the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau reminded in a Thursday public notice in docket 03-123. Summaries cover June 1, 2016, to May 31. They help inform the FCC of possible service quality issues and whether TRS providers are appropriately addressing complaints, and show states how other states are resolving complaints, the bureau said.

The telecom relay service fund administrator revised its funding estimates again Friday. The TRS fund's net cash requirement is now projected to be $1.3 billion for the funding year starting July 1 and the industry contribution rate would be 2.244 percent of interstate and international telecom end-user revenue, said Rolka Loube Associates in a filing Friday in docket 10-51. That's up from $1.137 billion and 1.959 percent earlier in the week when Rolka Loube revised its original estimates (see 1706010070).

Sorenson Communications told the FCC it "conditionally elects" to participate in trials of "skills based routing" and deaf interpreters authorized by the commission's March video relay service order (see 1703230055). Sorenson's participation was conditioned on its review of compensation rates the agency adopts for the 2017-2018 funding year starting July 1. Once the new rates are set, Sorenson will notify the agency within 60 days whether it will "continue to participate" in the trials, said its filing Thursday in docket 10-51. The company also conditioned participation on receiving additional time to begin the trials, "such as 180 days from the setting of the 2017-2018 rates," plus gaining flexibility on how long it would participate in the trials and "upfront clarification on how 'success' will be evaluated" for participants "to ensure it is done in an objective and timely manner." Sorenson had asked the FCC to extend the Thursday deadline by 60 days and an Aug. 1 trial commencement deadline by 180 days after the new rates are adopted (see 1705190035). The FCC didn't put a draft VRS rate order on the tentative agenda for commissioners' June 22 meeting as some thought possible (see 1705300057). An item still could be adopted, including on circulation, before the current VRS rates expire on June 30, we're told. VRS and other telecom relay service stakeholders continued to make various filings this week in the docket, including comments on non-rate parts of VRS notices that were attached to the order authorizing the trials. TRS fund administrator Rolka Loube Associates revised its net cash requirements to $1.137 billion for FY 2017-18 in an update proposing a "unchanged" contribution factor of 1.959 percent of carrier interstate and international telecom end-user revenue. It previously projected a net cash requirement of $1.26 billion and a contribution factor rise to 2.1 percent (see 1705030034).