The FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it “hurriedly promulgated rules” -- without seeking comment -- that banned companies from giving away IP Captioned Telephone Service phones with the captioning feature turned on. That’s the unanimous holding of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which found that an agency is not entitled to deference when it invokes “good cause” as a reason for bypassing the APA. The court vacated the agency’s “interim” order and parts of the final order, while leaving the remainder intact. The case is Sorenson Communications v. FCC (http://1.usa.gov/1psR2Z4).

The FCC rejected a request by the Diogenes Telecommunications Project (DTP) that it reopen an investigation of AT&T for alleged misconduct in providing Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS). The project lacks standing, the FCC said in a Wednesday order (http://fcc.us/S9ho5h). In May 2013, AT&T agreed to pay $18.25 million to settle an FCC investigation into improper billing to the TRS fund and to adopt compliance measures (http://bit.ly/109q7Fk). The application for review by DTP “does not allege any direct or personal injury to DTP as an organization or to any of its members,” the FCC said. “It offers only a generalized and purely hypothetical injury.” DTP only “speculates that there might possibly be some injury to one of its members,” the FCC said.

The FCC violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Administrative Procedure Act when it created rules last year meant to curb misuse of the Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS), Sorenson and subsidiary CaptionCall said, urging a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday to strike down the rules. The agency contends it acted within the bounds of ADA and APA, though at least two of the three judges said they had concerns.

The FCC plans to fine Purple Communications $11.9 million for improperly billing the Telecom Relay Service Fund, the agency said in a news release Friday. The company “sought and received millions in reimbursements from the TRS fund for customers with names that were so clearly false that they could not have been the actual names of eligible users, including names like ’sdfsdf cicwcicw,’ ‘Myname Yourname,’ and ‘Lot$a Money,'” the FCC said. “Purple’s actions have threatened the integrity of a fund that is designed to help persons with hearing and speech disabilities make phone calls,” said Enforcement Bureau acting Chief Travis LeBlanc. “We have zero tolerance for this type of abuse.” Purple billed the TRS Fund for calls by more than 40,000 registrants with names composed of “random keystrokes” and “vulgarities” such as “F*** Y**,” the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1iSESX5). “Purple is required to use a reasonable process to verify the names and addresses of users.” Purple did not comment.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls systems will go offline for maintenance on April 25 from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. EDT. During this time the DTrade system will not accept submissions. The EFS, TRS, ELLIE and MARY systems will be unavailable, as will the pmddtc.state.gov website.

Internet-based relay services don’t have to file waiver status reports by April 16, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in an order Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1p7DS2k). The reports would have detailed their progress in meeting the existing waived mandatory minimum telecom relay service (TRS) standards. “The Commission currently is considering action that would make permanent exemptions to certain TRS mandatory minimum standards,” wrote acting Chief Kris Monteith. “It is unlikely that this proceeding will be concluded prior to the April 16, 2014 filing deadline for the annual reports. Given that the Commission is in the midst of conducting this review, we find that requiring [Video Relay Service] and IP Relay providers to file new status reports this year -- which are, at least in large part, expected to repeat what has been reported to the Commission on multiple prior occasions, as has been the case in prior years’ reports -- would serve little purpose and impose an unnecessary burden on the providers at this time."

Internet-based relay services don’t have to file waiver status reports by April 16, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in an order Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1p7DS2k). The reports would have detailed their progress in meeting the existing waived mandatory minimum telecom relay service (TRS) standards. “The Commission currently is considering action that would make permanent exemptions to certain TRS mandatory minimum standards,” wrote acting Chief Kris Monteith. “It is unlikely that this proceeding will be concluded prior to the April 16, 2014 filing deadline for the annual reports. Given that the Commission is in the midst of conducting this review, we find that requiring [Video Relay Service] and IP Relay providers to file new status reports this year -- which are, at least in large part, expected to repeat what has been reported to the Commission on multiple prior occasions, as has been the case in prior years’ reports -- would serve little purpose and impose an unnecessary burden on the providers at this time."

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls systems will undergo maintenance on Jan. 31 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The DTrade system will be unavailable to accept submissions during this time period. EFS, TRS, ELLIE and MARY will be unavailable, as will the www.pmddtc.state.gov website.

Sprint asked the FCC for a limited waiver of the agency’s Telecommunications Relay Services rules in order to permit federal video relay service toll-free “front door” phone numbers and 10-digit numbers into the Internet-based TRS Numbering Directory. “Permitting these federal ‘front door’ and ten-digit numbers into the database will increase the ability of taxpaying deaf and hard of hearing Americans to reach federal employees and will reduce the number of calls placed through the federal TRS fund,” Sprint said (http://bit.ly/1jaj4nH).

Advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing community urged the FCC to take a targeted approach to help the hearing population understand the importance of video relay service and IP relay service. They also suggested the use of social media to inform individuals in the deaf and hard of hearing community of advancements in services, they said Friday during a meeting to establish an Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Service National Outreach Program (iTRS-NOP). Participants said they intend the NOP to help reduce the number of telephone hang-ups experienced by people making relay calls.