The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) has issued an Order expanding the future contribution base for telecommunications relay services (TRS). All telecommunications carriers and providers of interconnected and non-interconnected VoIP service are required to contribute to the TRS Fund, which supports six different services. TRS contributions currently are assessed solely on interstate end-user telecommunications and VoIP revenue for the most part. However, TRS contributions that go to support one service—Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS)—are assessed on both interstate and intrastate end-user telecommunications and VoIP revenue. With this Order, the FCC expands the TRS contribution base to include intrastate as well as interstate revenue for two additional services—video relay service (VRS) and Internet Protocol Relay Service (IP Relay)—beginning July 1, 2023.
