States and territories should submit their renewal applications to recertify their telecom relay service programs by Dec. 1, said an FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Monday in docket 03-123. Current certifications are to expire on July 25, the notice said, and the bureau requested applications to allow for "sufficient time to review and rule on the applications."

The Florida Public Service Commission kept a 10-cent monthly surcharge on landline bills for telecom relay services for the 2022/2023 fiscal year, the commission said Thursday. The PSC approved a $3.96 million annual budget for Florida Telecommunications Relay. The budget increased by about $208,000 from last year “to account for a recent rise in relay service expenses,” the PSC said. Revenue is down due to reduced access lines, it noted. “As in past years, reported numbers show a downward trend in relay service call volumes,” said PSC Chairman Andrew Fay.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau announced Telecom Relay Service Fund per minute compensation rates Friday through June 30, said an order Thursday in docket 03-123. The per-minute rate for traditional TTY-based TRS is $4.5098; speech-to-speech relay is $5.6408; captioned telephone service is $2.3419; and IP relay is $1.9576. The bureau also extended its waiver of compensation formulas for IP CTS and video relay service until June 30 or the effective date of commission action (see 2111150057).

The FCC expanded the interstate Telecom Relay Service Fund contribution base to include intrastate and interstate end-user revenue, to ensure "fair treatment of intrastate and interstate communications services and users in the funding of relay services," said an order released Thursday in docket 03-123 (see 2206280060). The order modified contributions for video relay and IP relay services based on the "total interstate and intrastate end-user revenues of each telecommunications carrier and VoIP service provider." It denied an NTCA request to limit the contribution cost of rural providers' intrastate end-user revenue and set a compliance date of July 1, 2023. The order takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication. Also released Thursday was a second order amending VRS and IP captioned telephone service rules, an NPRM proposing to modify certain VRS rules, and a declaratory ruling on COVID-19 pandemic waivers. The second order gave VRS and IP CTS providers a two-week "grace period" to be compensated for "providing service to new and porting-in customers ... after initial submission of the consumer's registration data." The change will allow users to "immediately start making and receiving relay calls," the order said. The NPRM seeks comments on increasing the percentage of a VRS provider's monthly minutes a communications assistant (CA) may handle from home to 80% and reducing or eliminating the requirement that CA's have at least three years of interpreting experience. The notice also seeks comment on whether to allow VRS providers to contract interpretation services for "up to 30% of their monthly call minutes." The commission also waived its cap on the rules for one year. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, 60 days for replies. The declaratory ruling clarified that the maximum period a VRS provider may be compensated for calls originating abroad by a VRS user is one year.

The FCC has adopted three Telecommunications Relay Services items circulated for a vote June 6, an FCC official told the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee at a virtual meeting Tuesday. DAC didn’t act on any reports or take substantial action at the meeting. The FCC acted on T-Mobile Accessibility’s push for more sustainable TRS compensation rates (see 2206240047), said Eliot Greenwald, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Disability Rights Office. “We hope to be able to release those items very soon,” he said. “One item adopts a new compensation formula for IP relay,” he said: Another “addresses some of the issues that have arisen regarding pandemic waivers related to” the video relay service, including interpreters “working from home and calls from abroad to the United States. The third one addresses the contribution base for VRS and IP relay.” The IP Captioning Files Transmittal Working Group has called in experts to offer insights and is putting together a “drafting subcommittee of the willing” for an upcoming report, said Chair Kyle Dixon, NCTA deputy general counsel-program network policy. The WG was asked to “identify issues and best practices associated with the delivery and receipt of captioning files or full-length programming distributed online” he said. The WG will also “suggest solutions to increase the amount of captioned programming,” he said. The goal is to get the full WG a draft next week, he said. Lyle Ishida, chief of the CGB Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, updated DAC members on the FCC’s affordable connectivity program. He wants to “deputize all of you to supercharge awareness of the program using your existing contacts and your influence to help low-income households within the disability community,” he said.

An FCC record refresh on improving how wireless 911 calls are routed to the appropriate first responders is expected to be approved 4-0 by commissioners at their monthly meeting Wednesday. The final version is likely to incorporate some language sought by APCO (see 2206010027), said FCC and industry officials. The National Emergency Number Association doesn’t support those changes. APCO was the lone party to file comments in docket 18-62 after the FCC posted the draft.

IP captioned telephone service provider Hamilton Relay backed Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator Rolka Loube's proposed per-minute compensation formulas for the multistate average rate structure, in comments posted Wednesday in FCC docket 03-123 (see 2205160065). Hamilton asked that the current IP CTS rate be extended until either June 30, 2023, or when the FCC adopts a rate "based on a sustainable, long-term rate methodology." It also asked the commission to refresh the record on a "long-term IP CTS rate methodology."

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments by May 31, replies by June 7, on Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator Rolka Loube's proposed per-minute compensation formulas for the multistate average rate structure, said a public notice Monday in docket 03-123. Rolka Loube proposed $4.5098 for interstate traditional TRS, $5.6408 for speech-to-speech relay service, and $2.3419 for captioned telephone service. The bureau also wants comments on Rolka Loube's disbursement estimates and recommendations for the national deaf-blind equipment distribution program, iCanConnect. The FCC will address video relay service, IP captioned telephone service, and IP relay "in actions separate from this request for comment," the notice said.

T-Mobile Accessibility representatives raised concerns about telecommunications relay service compensation rates in a call with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Friday in docket 03-123. The carrier discussed “that IP Relay service continues to provide an essential communications link to certain segments of the TRS user community, including DeafBlind individuals,” the filing said: T-Mobile indicated it “would like to maintain and expand its IP Relay offering for those consumers. To do so, the company must be adequately compensated for providing the service.” T-Mobile urged a ratemaking methodology “based on a modified version of the Multistate Average Rate Structure that is used to set the rate for traditional TRS offerings.”

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated April 21 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):