VTCSecure Seeks TRS Numbering Access for Direct Sign-Language Support Services
VTCSecure asked the FCC to allow providers of direct sign-language support services to access the telecom relay service (TRS) numbering directory. About 10 percent of video relay service (VRS) calls, which use a sign-language (SL) interpreter to relay voice communications…
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to the deaf and hard of hearing, go to just 100 customer-service phone numbers in large corporations and government agencies, said a VTCSecure petition for waiver and declaratory ruling filed in docket 03-123 Wednesday. Such interactions would more closely resemble regular phone conversations -- increasing "functional equivalence" mandated under the law -- if the customer-service representative and the deaf consumer could communicate directly using sign language rather than through an SL interpreter, said the petition. It said the service also would save the TRS Fund tens of millions of dollars annually and employ deaf persons as customer-service representatives. But providers of direct SL customer-support services need access to the TRS numbering directory to obtain routing information and so VRS providers will know calls to customer-service numbers should be handled as point-to-point video calls without an interpreter, the petition said. The commission also should require VRS providers to include direct SL customer-support service providers on their "white list" of known IP domain names they have agreed to recognize as valid for routing point-to-point video calls, it concluded.