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).

The Iowa Utilities Board OK'd a contract for state telecom relay services and captioned telephone relay service to Hamilton Relay, the IUB said in a news release Wednesday. The contract is for Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019, and may be extended for three years, it said. The board didn't say how much the contract is worth.

The Iowa Utilities Board OK'd a contract for state telecom relay services and captioned telephone relay service to Hamilton Relay, the IUB said in a news release Wednesday. The contract is for Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019, and may be extended for three years, it said. The board didn't say how much the contract is worth.

Communication Service for the Deaf urged the FCC to grant "reasonable" waiver requests from entities needing video-enabled 10-digit telephone numbers (TDNs) to provide direct sign-language video communications for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. CSD said the commission in the near future "should broaden access" to the telecom relay service (TRS) numbering directory to include telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP. "There is no communication experience that is purer and as fulfilling when people are able to communicate directly with one another," CSD said in reply comments posted Friday in docket 10-51 on VTCSecure's waiver petition to allow direct sign-language support services to access the TRS directory. "But for as long as the Commission does not take steps to allow the larger community of hearing individuals, businesses, and government entities to obtain Video-Enabled TDNs, it is a benefit that is denied to Relay Users. ... CSD urges the Commission to work towards a more permanent solution to enable every telecommunications user to video-enable their TDNs, breaking down the VRS 'walled garden' and bringing TDN dialing of videophones into the mainstream." VTCSecure filed a reply responding to initial comments in which consumer groups and Gallaudet University generally supported its petition and video relay service providers opposed it (see 1608180036).

FCC staff granted Sprint and Hamilton Relay temporary waivers from "two mandatory minimum requirements" for providers of traditional telecom relay service (TRS), speech-to-speech relay service (STS), and captioned telephone service (CTS). The rules "require TRS providers to allow users to have long distance calls carried by their preferred long distance carrier and to offer the same billing options (such as collect, calling card, and third party billing) traditionally offered by wireline telephone companies," said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order in docket 03-123 Wednesday. "These two requirements are temporarily waived for providers of traditional TRS, STS, and CTS, to the extent that the providers do not assess a toll charge for long-distance calls. Each waiver remains in effect for two years, or until the effective date of a Commission rulemaking or other decision as to the continuing application of the requirement to traditional TRS, STS, and CTS, whichever occurs first."