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November 16, 2005
Consumer groups petition for IP captioning
The Federal Communications Commission says a petition for rulemaking – filed by 13 organizations representing consumer advocates and persons with hearing or speech disabilities – asks the regulator to mandate that carriers provide captioning for specialized telephone relay service (TRS) currently used by such citizens, including the addition of Internet Protocol (IP) offerings to the mandate.
TRS permits persons to simultaneously both listen to what the other party is saying and read captions of what the other party is saying on the same device. “Presently, the service is eligible for compensation from the Interstate TRS Fund, but is not mandatory,” the FCC said. “The petition asks the commission to initiate a rulemaking for the purpose of making captioned telephone service a mandatory form of TRS and approving IP-captioned telephone service as eligible for compensation from the fund.” Comments and replies are due within 30 and 45 days, respectively, after publication of the FCC’s notice in the Federal Register.
The FCC is looking into a number of concepts for helping hearing-, speech- and sight-impaired people to use Internet, data, video and voice services plus it has been seeking hearing-aid compatibility among carriers and manufacturers for dual-band digital wireless handsets. During House hearings last week on proposed telecom legislation to regulate IP and broadband services (TelecomWeb news break, Nov. 10, Nov. 8), captioning and other potential solutions for disabled persons within such services were strongly advocated by Prof. Frank G. Bowe of Hofstra University, with the endorsement of 17 organizations.
Source: http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1132089217.htm
Posted by 4HL on November 16, 2005 8:34 AM
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