Legal action by relay provider Sorenson is “on the table” if the FCC goes ahead with a proposal to reconfigure rates for video relay services, Mike Maddix, the company’s regulatory affairs manager, said in an interview. The commission is considering an early change to rates used to determine compensation for VRS under the interstate telecom relay service fund. The agency is currently following a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007. In comments last week, Sorenson said abandoning the three-year plan would be “arbitrary and capricious,” and possibly unconstitutional (CD July 8 p3). Taking the FCC to court is a “last resort,” but the company has had success challenging commission orders in the past, said Maddix. He cited a recent appeals court victory on TRS lobbying rules (CD June 8 p3).

The FBI warned in a notice Wednesday of a new fraud scheme involving telecom relay services. The FBI has recently received several reports of fraudsters exploiting auto repair shops by using TRS to request services for a vehicle, the bureau said. “The fraudster claims the vehicle has to be shipped to the shop and requests the repairs and shipping fees be charged to a credit card,” it said. “The charges initially go through without any complications, but unbeknownst to the business, the credit card is fraudulent or stolen. The business is then directed to wire the money to the shipper to cover the shipping costs. After the money is wired, the business is notified of the fraudulent credit card and forced to bear the loss.”

As the FCC mulls changing the reporting date for Form 499-A, it should consider the impact on programs that cull information from the filing, said the National Exchange Carrier Association. In comments this week, NECA said it didn’t object to a petition by Alexicon Telecommunications Consulting to move the due date to September 1, from April 1 (CD June 9 p9). But it said the FCC should recognize the revision could affect the interstate telecom relay service fund and cost recovery mechanisms for numbering administration and long-term number portability. NECA, which administers the TRS fund, said delaying the form filing date “would potentially require a delay in TRS filings and funding periods until the fourth Quarter of each year.”

A possible FCC decision to reconfigure video relay service rates may be illegal, said Sorenson Communications, the biggest U.S. VRS provider, in comments this week at the FCC. The commission is considering an early change to rates used to determine compensation for VRS under the interstate telecom relay service fund (CD June 26 p6). The agency is currently following a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007.

Speech Communications Assistance by Telephone, Inc. urged the FCC to measure Speech-To-Speech calls in session minutes, not conversation minutes, when reimbursing for STS calls. The non-profit organization made its comments in a filing responding to FCC requirements for Telecom Replay Service providers to measure calls in conversation minutes. SCT also urged providers to offer more outreach to increase usage. Limiting reimbursement to conversation minutes “unfairly penalizes” providers and discourages outreach to STS users as providers must devote resources to the entire call, not just the conversation, it said. STS calls may not begin conversation as quickly as other TRS calls because of the slow speech of people with speech disabilities and the necessity of instructing the call assistant to interact with the user, the group said.

The FCC extended by more than four months the deadline for people with hearing problems to register 10-digit phone numbers with Internet-based telecom relay service providers. In an order Monday, the FCC said TRS providers may continue to connect calls by unregistered users until Nov. 12. The original deadline, June 30, was criticized by many telecom relay providers (CD May 1 p5), which pointed to unresolved technical problems and low consumer awareness.

A federal appeals court rejected two FCC rules designed to protect deaf consumers from unwanted lobbying. Ruling late Thursday on appeals by Sorenson and Purple Communications, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver remanded the telecom relay service rules, calling one unconstitutional and the other arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act. The court dismissed a challenge by Purple to a third rule on abusive marketing practices, because the TRS provider hadn’t sought FCC reconsideration.

Video relay service providers urged the FCC to reject a request by a consumer group representing the deaf for access to confidential company cost data. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing asked for the data so it and other consumer groups could comment on new compensation rates for VRS proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association (CD May 21 p5). VRS providers receive federal funding under the interstate telecom relay service fund. In an opposition filing Monday, Sorenson Communications, the biggest VRS provider in the U.S., said revealing the data could harm competition because it “would expose rivals’ market shares, as well as details indicative of individual business strategies, priorities and allocations of financial resources.” AT&T, Hamilton Relay and Sprint Nextel concurred in a separate filing. “The TRS Providers, while reluctant to oppose consumer group involvement in Commission proceedings, must respectfully object to the motion because of the potential damage that could be caused by the essentially limitless number of proposed parties seeking to review the TRS Providers’ confidential data submissions.”

AT&T and Sprint Nextel urged the FCC to abolish a telecom relay service rule requiring conventional Teletype TRS providers to automatically and immediately call the appropriate public safety answering point when they get a 711 emergency call from an interconnected-VoIP user. In separate comments last week at the FCC, AT&T and Sprint said such users make too few of the calls to justify the costs of building the system needed to comply. But consumer groups said “people with disabilities must have the same access to emergency services as any person without disabilities.”

Clarification: Providers of telecom relay service asked the FCC to put off a deadline for TRS users to register 10- digit numbers (CD May 22 p6) until Dec. 31 or until technical milestones are met.