Purple Asks FCC To Extend Proposed VRS Rate Freeze to All 'Small Providers'
The FCC should expand a proposed video relay service (VRS) rate freeze to cover other "small providers," Purple Communications said in a filing summarizing a meeting with agency officials. Purple noted a recent Further NPRM proposed to temporarily freeze VRS…
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compensation rates for providers with 500,000 calling minutes or fewer per month, while other providers will continue to have their rates cut under a previous order (see 1511030064). Purple said the commission should raise the threshold for a rate freeze to 2.75 million minutes/month, to cover all small providers. “The VRS market does not, as the Commission characterizes it in the FNPRM, consist of three large and three small providers,” the company said. “The market includes three very small providers, two small providers (including Purple), and one near-monopoly provider. … Continuing the current rate decrease for any small provider would only serve to further concentrate the market in the dominant provider.” Purple submitted VRS “market distribution and cost structure analysis” -- much of which was blacked out as confidential -- in the filing posted Monday in docket 10-51. The three smallest VRS providers are seeking immediate implementation of the proposed freeze (see 1511270011). VRS provides video-connected interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with phone callers.