Deaf Groups Back Gallaudet/Omnitor Views on RTT; Verizon Backs CCA, T-Mobile
Advocates for those who are deaf and other groups endorsed the real-time text (RTT) positions espoused by Deaf/Hard of Hearing Technology Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center-Gallaudet University (RERC) and Omnitor, which they said are critical for the transition from traditional text…
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telephony service. The advocates said they strongly back RERC and Omnitor's view that "RTT must be supported" on every phone with a display and the ability to generate text or connect to devices that generate text. "This is essential to ensuring that people who rely on text, or a combination of voice and text, are able to call doctors, neighbors, businesses, and others with whom they need or wish to communicate, and not just those who have purchased special phones," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-145 from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association for the Deaf, Association of Late-Deafened Adults, Hearing Loss Association of America and Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization. They agreed with RERC/Omnitor's view "that the control to add RTT to a call must be available alongside other in-call controls, and in all instances that such controls are presented to users." The groups said they agreed with RERC/Omnitor that "all incoming calls that include RTT must be accepted with RTT automatically enabled." The groups backed Hamilton Relay's call for relay providers to "be included in the RTT ecosystem, with wireless carriers connecting to relay providers in RTT." Separately, Verizon said industry needed flexibility on implementing RTT. "While Verizon’s comments supported the flexibility to be able to use an over-the-top application during a transition to RTT, flexibility to implement RTT using native device capabilities is also important and should be encouraged," said a Verizon filing, on a meeting with an FCC staffer. The carrier said it agreed with related comments filed by the Competitive Carriers Association and T-Mobile (see 1611280038). The FCC tentatively plans an RTT vote at commissioners' Dec. 15 meeting (see 1611220064).