T-Mobile representatives met with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez to urge the agency to approve an NPRM proposing changes to telecom relay service (TRS) rules, eliminating a requirement from 1991 that providers support the ASCII format (see 2506050056). T-Mobile has been operating under a waiver since last year (see 2411250037). The NPRM is set for a vote on Thursday.

The FCC received both support and additional questions in response to a public notice on the telecommunications relay services (TRS) fund administrator’s latest proposed provider compensation formulas and funding requirements (see 2505220039). Comments were due Friday in docket 03-123. The proposed formulas would apply starting July 1 and run through June 30, 2026.

The FCC on Thursday posted the three items set for votes at the commission’s June 26 meeting, all of which are aimed at cutting regulations. It will consider cutting cable TV rules and an engineering requirement tied to the agency’s broadband data collection, as well as addressing text telephone-based telecom relay service rules.

Comments are due June 6, replies June 16, in docket 03-123 on the telecommunications relay services (TRS) fund administrator’s latest proposed provider compensation formulas and funding requirements, said a public notice Thursday. Rolka Loube Saltzer Associates' proposed formulas would apply from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. They include per-minute compensation formulas of $7.3512 for interstate traditional TRS, $8.4822 for interstate speech-to-speech relay service, and $3.1893 for interstate captioned telephone service. They also call for a compensation rate of $2.1970 per minute for IP relay service and a total fund requirement of $1,793,361,015 for the 2025-26 fund year.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Tuesday on two petitions from ClearCaptions seeking waivers to rules for the IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS) and the telecommunications relay service (TRS) fund. The company provides IP CTS that's supported by the fund. Comments are due June 19, replies July 7, in docket 03-123.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau this week released the telecom relay service (TRS) funding and payment formulas for the program year beginning July 1. The report is based on numbers calculated by TRS administrator Rolka Loube Associates. The rates listed for the next program year are $6.1229 per minute for traditional TRS (TTY), $7.2539 for speech-to-speech service, and $2.7867 for captioned telephone service. All the rates have increased sharply since the 2020-21 program year, led by TTY, which is up 63.2%, the report said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Friday on a petition by Sorenson Communications and CaptionCall on allowable costs for providing telecommunications relay services (TRS). Comments are due April 14, replies April 28, in dockets 03-123 and 10-51. The redacted petition asks that allowable TRS costs include funds associated with “responding to and defending against FCC enforcement proceedings related to a provider’s compliance with the TRS rules” and "educating members of the U.S. Congress and other policymakers on the TRS program generally and a TRS provider’s operations specifically,” the bureau said. It noted that Sorenson filed a similar petition in 2023.

Teleperformance Group on Friday applied for “full certification” to provide video relay service eligible for compensation from the interstate telecommunications relay service fund. “Currently, ZP is operating pursuant to a conditional certification on an interim basis following the consummation of Teleperformance’s acquisition of ZP,” the company said in an application filed in docket 03-123.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Friday approved the applications of Applied Development and Sorenson for access to the telecommunications relay services numbering directory as qualified direct video entities. The agency allows TRS direct video providers to seek access to the directory “to enable more effective direct video communication using American Sign Language between consumers with hearing or speech disabilities and customer support call centers,” said the notice about Sorenson. Qualified providers must demonstrate “a legitimate need for such access and an awareness of its regulatory obligations,” it added: “These obligations include compliance with the rules and regulations governing [video relay services] providers’ access to and use of the Directory, the instructions of the TRS Numbering administrator, and the applicable standards pertaining to privacy, security, reliability, and interoperability.” The Applied Development notice has the same language.

Solen Ventures and IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS) provider NexTalk want the FCC to grant conditional certification, allowing NexTalk to remain eligible for compensation from the interstate telecommunications relay service fund (TRS) fund following Solen's purchase of the company, said an application posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. That deal closed Dec. 13. Under acquisition terms, NexTalk will be dissolved and a new entity, NexTalk Software, will control its assets. The conditional certification would allow NexTalk Software “to remain eligible to receive compensation from the TRS Fund for providing its IP CTS under new ownership for an additional two years” while the FCC assesses its eligibility for full certification. FCC rules don’t allow certifications to provide internet-based TRS to be transferred to entities that don’t already hold it, and require such certifications as a condition for payment from the TRS fund. “Despite having received conditional authority in January 2024, NexTalk has yet to actually seek TRS funding, and will not do so unless and until the Commission approves this conditional application,” the filing said. “There have been no changes in NexTalk’s operations and the ways in which it will comply with TRS obligations. The only change is the new ownership and name change.”