FCC Adopts VRS Interoperability, Portability Standards; Sorenson Hits 'Midnight' Action
FCC staff approved video relay service interoperability and portability standards for services, equipment and software. Acting on delegated authority, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also issued a Further NPRM seeking comment on the scope of the application of a…
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technical standard for user equipment and software, said the item in docket 10-51 listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Sorenson Communications, the largest VRS provider, criticized the action. Previous interoperability and portability requirements were intended to allow VRS users to make and receive calls through any provider without changing access technologies, and to ensure users can make point-to-point calls to all other VRS users, regardless of the default providers, the item said. In an August FNPRM, the bureau proposed adopting the technical standards of both a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Forum task force and the successor Relay User Equipment (RUE) Forum (see 1608050031). The order this week incorporated the SIP interoperability standard into FCC rules, effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register, as requested by VRS providers. It said consumer groups supported incorporating the RUE standard into the rules but providers said imposing it on all hardware and software would impose major costs. The bureau said it incorporated the RUE standard "on a limited basis that preserves providers’ flexibility to continue offering user equipment and software that does not conform to the RUE Profile in all respects, pending further determinations in this proceeding." It set a compliance date of one year after FR publication and teed up related questions in the new FNPRM. "The Bureau went far beyond what was necessary and has adopted what providers all told them were unneeded and costly requirements without any cost/benefit analysis," emailed Sorenson Chief Marketing Officer Paul Kershisnik. "The industry is already implementing interoperability standards, and has developed a more cost-effective means of ensuring consumers can move their contacts from one provider to another. We will be urging the Commission to review and correct these midnight regulations." Consumer advocates and Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly didn't comment.