Communications Advisory Bulletin
FCC Issues Rules Extending Hearing and Speech-Impaired
Access Requirements (TRS) to VoIP Services
By James
M. Smith
[June 2007]
As previously noted in our June
1 advisory, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
has extended its Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) requirements,
which oblige telecommunications service providers and manufacturers
to afford persons with hearing and speech-impaired disabilities
reasonable access to telephone services and equipment.
The FCC’s new Order and rules,
which have now been released, impose these obligations on “interconnected”
[to the public switched network] Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
providers and manufacturers of VoIP handsets and other equipment.
Some of these requirements will become effective for VoIP providers
and manufacturers 60 days after they are published in the Federal
Register, while others (involving collection of information)
must await OMB approval. All told, we estimate the requirements
will be phased in over a four- to seven-month time frame. (To be
informed of exact effective dates as they become definite, please
contact one of the below-listed DWT attorneys.)
As described in our previous advisory,
the new regulations require VoIP providers to offer (and manufacturers
to enable) various types of TRS—which typically involves an
interplay of voice, text and/or video components and an operator’s
intervention—and to the extent “readily achievable,”1
to designate an agent for receipt and handling of accessibility
complaints and inquiries, and to send this information to the FCC
for posting on the agency’s website. In addition, all interconnected
VoIP providers and equipment manufacturers are required to: (1)
consider accessibility of covered equipment and services throughout
their design, development, and fabrication, as early and consistently
as possible; (2) where employee training is provided, consider accessibility
issues in the development of such training; and (3) maintain records
of the entity’s accessibility efforts that can be presented
to the FCC in the event that consumers with disabilities file complaints.
Interconnected VoIP providers must also offer abbreviated “711”
dialing to access these relay services.
Finally, and importantly, VoIP
providers will now be required to contribute a percentage of their
interstate revenues into the federal TRS Fund, and to file FCC Form
499-A (used to calculate such contributions, as well as Universal
Service Fund and other contributions) on an annual basis. In turn,
VoIP providers will be eligible for compensation from the fund for
the TRS services they provide.
The FCC once again declined to
classify VoIP as a “telecommunications” service subject
to the panoply of regulations applied to providers of such services,
but instead found that “[b]ecause consumers have a reasonable
expectation that interconnected VoIP services are replacements for
traditional phone service, the same disability access protections
that currently apply to telephony must apply to interconnected VoIP.”
This pronouncement fits the FCC’s pattern over the past two
years of applying a growing variety of public-safety, consumer-protection
and law-enforcement-related obligations on interconnected VoIP services.
The FCC has already imposed 911/E911, universal service, CALEA (wiretapping)
and, most recently, CPNI (subscriber privacy) obligations on interconnected
VoIP services.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has stated
that the agency will “continue to evaluate” the applicability
of other telephone-type obligations to VoIP, including numbering
and other consumer protection measures, in order to “protect
the interests of consumers and establish a competitively neutral
playing field for competing services.” Interconnected VoIP
providers and equipment manufacturers thus may expect additional
FCC regulation in the future.
The details of these new regulatory
requirements and contribution obligations are complex in their applicability
and implementation. For further information, please contact one
of the below-listed DWT attorneys.
Footnote
1
If the requirement is not “readily achievable,” the
provider must ensure that the service is compatible with existing
devices or specialized customer premise equipment (CPE) commonly
used by individuals with disabilities to achieve access. A provider
also must ensure, if readily achievable, that information and documentation
provided in connection with an interconnected VoIP service is accessible.
A manufacturer of equipment or CPE designed to provide interconnected
VoIP service must ensure, if readily achievable, that the equipment
is designed and fabricated to be usable by individuals with disabilities.
If such compliance is not readily achievable, the manufacturer must
ensure that the equipment is compatible with existing devices or
specialized CPE commonly used by individuals with disabilities to
achieve access, if such compatibility is readily achievable. A covered
manufacturer also must ensure that information and documentation
provided in connection with covered interconnected VoIP equipment
or CPE is accessible—again, if such accessibility is readily
achievable.
For further information, please contact:
This advisory is a publication of the Communications Group of Davis
Wright Tremaine LLP. Our purpose in publishing this advisory is
to inform our clients and friends of recent developments in the
communications industry. It is not intended, nor should it be used,
as a substitute for specific legal advice as legal counsel may be
given only in response to inquiries regarding particular situations.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Thank you.
Copyright © 2007, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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