At its June Open Meeting, the FCC adopted a Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Notice of Inquiry to reform Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS). IP CTS is a form of telecommunications relay service (TRS) that allows callers with hearing loss to simultaneously listen to and read captions of what the other party is saying. The Commission’s latest IP CTS item, which has not yet been released, sets interim IP CTS provider compensation rates to bring those rates closer to average provider costs. The item also establishes rules to curb unnecessary IP CTS use and waste of the TRS Fund, including a ban on providing IP CTS to ineligible users, and modernizes IP CTS by allowing service providers to use fully automated speech recognition (ASR) to produce captions. The FCC seeks comment on, among other things, potential improvements to the IP CTS program’s compensation plan, funding, and structure. Comment deadlines will be announced upon the item’s publication in the Federal Register.
