FCC Proposes 'Middle Ground' on Common Standard in Real-Time Text Transition
Rather than requiring a common standard for real-time text (RTT) as an alternative to text technology (TTY), the FCC is proposing a “middle ground” approach, said the NPRM approved at last week’s commissioner meeting and released late Friday. The NPRM proposes that the FCC recognize RTT as a replacement for TTY starting in December 2017 for larger carriers. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly questioned whether the proposed rules are too prescriptive (see 1604280055). Comment deadlines will come when the NPRM is posted in the Federal Register.
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Consumer groups support a common standard, but companies and groups raised a red flag, the NPRM said. “We agree with consumers and researchers that standards can be especially important to ensuring interoperability of technologies needed by people with disabilities and that common technical specifications will allow connectivity to occur seamlessly from one end of the call to the other without incurring obstacles along the way.” The agency said it also recognizes the importance of flexibility and technology neutrality.
“We tentatively conclude that a middle ground between these two approaches can be achieved by referencing a technical standard as a safe harbor,” the NPRM said. “We believe that this approach will ensure RTT interoperability and product portability, while at the same time provide sufficient flexibility for covered entities adhering to different internal RTT standards -- so long as their RTT support offers the same functions and capabilities as the selected standard, and is interoperable with the standard’s format where they connect with other providers.”
The NPRM also asks about a proposed mandate that RTT be backward compatible with TTY technology. Among questions is “what events or measures” should trigger the FCC to drop that requirement. Backward compatibility could be difficult to achieve, the NPRM said. “A particular concern regarding backward compatibility with TTYs is the fact that TTYs can only send and display a small subset of Unicode characters, namely upper-case letters, numbers, the pound and dollar signs, and some punctuation marks,” the FCC said. “Thus, gateways between RTT systems and legacy TTYs need to be able to convert the much larger Unicode set used with RTT into readable TTY characters.”
Initially, RTT will likely be available as an over-the-top app, the NPRM said. But it also asks about a requirement that RTT technology be embedded in phones. “To what extent the Commission should be concerned that the advantages of RTT as a universal text solution will not be achieved until RTT is incorporated as a native function in end user devices, or at a minimum, pre-installed by the manufacturer or service provider as a ‘default’ application,” asked the FCC. “We seek comment on whether this concern should guide our final rules.”
The record is already clear that the technical and functional limitations of TTY “have resulted in a steady decline in its use in favor of other forms of text communication that offer greater ease of use, improved features, and practicability,” the FCC said.