Ed's Telecom Alert

NECA Report to FCC
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. NECA Report Here is the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on funding for Telecommunicaitons Relay Service (TRS). Basically NECA is submitting report for the FCC to approve the new funding for TRS and explains how they arrive at new rates. Good information there, and not too hard ...
Media Language Tech Legal Mon, May 04 2009

Nominated for FCC Commissioner
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Obama nominated Mignon Clyburn to be one of the FCC Commissioner. WSJ Article If you want to know what Clyburn looks like.. NJO Article Clyburn will be replacing Jonathan Adelstein who has been known to give support to the deaf/hoh issues. TVB Article eyes open & thumbs up, Ed
Media Tech Legal Thu, Apr 30 2009

Follow Up on Organic Minutes
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, I think clarification is needed on VRS industry; that is, should or should not do regarding these phone-in situations; like on-line education, tele-seminars, getting information via phone, etc. First of all I like what commentators Todd and Christian said in their comments. We have 5 Titles from ADA. Check out an abbrevi...
Tech Legal Thu, Apr 30 2009

Sign Language Scheme
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Hey - from my friend, Debbie, who send me this link. Sign Language Scheme Oh, geez....as if we need more black eyes. eyes open & thumbs up, Ed
Language Legal Culture Wed, Apr 29 2009

FCC Video Clips
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks.. Check this link out. You'll see video clips explaining all about the number rules for VRS/IP Relay. You'll need to download realplayer program, though. FCC Video Clips Kudos for FCC for doing this. Hope they will do more of this type of educaitonal and informative video clips in the future - especially the controverisal issues and...
Media Tech Legal Tue, Apr 28 2009

Organic Minutes
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks... A friend of mine used the term, Organic Minutes and it really hit off what I've been trying to say all along. This is also to follow up on a couple comments that asked about should this and that be permitted or not; what does the FCC regulation say? and so on. Definition of organic: Free [...]
Media Culture Tech Mon, Apr 27 2009
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Partial Reconsideration of FCC Rules
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, Here is your chance to express your thoughts to this FCC Public Notice. FCC Public Notice TDI and GoAmerica petitions for reconsideration of assigning hearing persons with video phones Telephone Number of which FCC had said is not permitted at this time. This is one instance that I disagree with FCC on. If you feel same [...]
Tech Legal Wed, Apr 22 2009

Reports from VRS Providers
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. These are required reports from the FCC on why VRS providers are STILL not able to comply with the "waived" TRS rules. The following reports by VRS providers. I agree with VRS providers on the difficulty of meeting the "required" waived rules. Most of them say essentially the same thing. CAC Pu...
Tech Legal Wed, Apr 22 2009

Internet Metering Shelved by Time Warner
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This is good news! Basically Time Warner decided not to do Internet metering for those who download/use Internet alot. VRS users may or may not be hit by this, but with that..we don't have to worry about that. Internet Metering Shelved eyes open & thumbs up, Ed
Tech Mon, Apr 20 2009

GoAmerica Petition
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks... GoAmerica (The Purple folks) submitted a petition to the FCC. See the link GA Petition Basically GoAmerica is asking the FCC [Quote] "..to amend its rules (1) to prohibit the practice of providing “white label” servicesby uncertified entities receiving compensation from the Interstate TRS Fund through certified providers,and (...
Tech Legal Sat, Mar 28 2009
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In-Flight WiFi Becoming More Widespread
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, Having Internet connections while flying on a plane is way cool! Makes me wonder if video chats would be possible? Hope so, but this article did not say anything about video conference, though. Talks about having access to Internet while flying. Article WIFI on Plane Not free, though. eyes open & thumbs up, ...
Tech Mon, Mar 16 2009

FCC Oversight Needed On Marketing by VRS Providers?
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks.. This is just a speculative musing with a suggestion for the FCC. As the VRS industry grows, and we're seeing VRS industry testing FCC on some uncharted areas of sales, marketing and telemarketing within VRS providers. The relay regulations, for most part, are ambiguous on what relay services can be used for.  ...
Media Language Legal Culture Thu, Mar 12 2009

Proposal for Portability on Number only, not Equipment
Ed's Telecom Alert All... I imagine many of you are wondering about portability issue regarding LN from VRS provider and VP from VRS. Are both "portable"? If you remember my past vlogs, right now because of technology issues only LN is portable, not the equipment. What does that mean? It means you can't port equipment to a different VRS [....
Tech Legal Mon, Mar 09 2009

Consumer Group Expectations of FCC
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. The link will show you the list of expectations from these consumer groups on what they think the FCC ought to do. Consumer Group Remarks Name of consumer groups who filed the collective remarks are the following: Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., National Association of the Deaf, Communication Service for the Dea...
Tech Legal Fri, Mar 06 2009

Julius Genachowski Selected by Obama for FCC Chair
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Finally Obama selects a person to be the Federal Communication Commission Chair, and he is Julius Genachowski - easy to memorize the name, go like this: GENA CHOW SKI. Here are several links to the articles: CNET Article CNET article focuses on Genachowski as strong advocate of Net Neutrality which in my humble opinion is a good thing. ...
Legal Wed, Mar 04 2009

Sign Language over Cell Phone
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This is an old news according to a friend I video chatted with, but maybe the completion of the product is not so far in the future now? VRS industry now has four mobile VPs that I know of: Purple's MVP, two from CSDVRS's Z-340 and PC-100, and Viable's VPAD+. This one is cell phone and it [.....
Tech Fri, Feb 27 2009

NECA Interestate TRS Report
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks.. I have been obsessed with reading Number Order and interpreting the order; obsession was still with me when I did the vlog on the NECA report so I made mistakes. Here is the corrected vlog. Sorry.. One part of the report is for month of December 2008. VRS minutes were the highest at 8,087,897 and and the [...]
Media Language Tech Legal Culture Thu, Feb 26 2009

NECA Report on Interstate TRS Fund
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. For those of you who like numbers, this is it. It shows for month of Dec 2008 minutes, VRS made $8,331,729. The closest second was TTY relay service with $824,527. Wow a big difference. Another interesting fact is who got paid is listed there. That means they are certified by the FCC as TRS providers. [...]
Media Tech Legal Culture Wed, Feb 25 2009

DTV
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, CSD has a very good website and very easy to understand on the transition from analog to digitial TV. Check it out DTV Most of us will not need to do anything, but if you do need to do something - CSD has telephone number you can call to get help if you have problem understanding website. [...]
Media Tech Mon, Feb 23 2009

Porting Your LN to Different VRS Provider
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, One thing that the FCC requires of VRS and Internet Relay providers is the ability of deaf/hoh users to be able to port their LN to a different provider. Local Number is what you received from your original (default) provider. Porting simply means you can keep your LN when you change to a new default [...]
Tech Fri, Feb 20 2009

Kareem Dale As Special Assistant to the President for...
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. VP Biden announced Kareem Dale who is partially blind and is a black person selected as Special Assistant to the President for Disability issues. Biden Announcement Check out his blog, and read, and gain insight of who the person is. Dale's Blog Check out pixes of him. Pixes of Kareem Dale Hope he will be a good representative...
Media Legal Mon, Feb 16 2009

Multiple VRS Providers on ONE VP Permitted
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This is another series on LN. Let's say you have one VP - oh let's use VP-200 as an example because that is the VP majority of VRS users use. You decide to have SorensonVRS as your default provider. Can you call other VRS providers with VP-200? Absolutely! Just add other VRS providers to the address [...]
Tech Mon, Feb 16 2009

Nefarious Persons Use IP Relay Service
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. A quickie one - if you'll pardon the pun ;-] This is where bad people use IP relay to foster fraud schemes. Interesting story there. Swat Responds to Emergency Fraud With the new required LN, this should reduce the fraudulent calls considerably as IP Relay providers will need to ask for name, address, etc. IP Providers are [....
Media Language Tech Legal Culture Fri, Feb 13 2009

Clarification on How Many “LN” You Can Get?
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Based on numerous emails and video calls I've received, it is glaringly obvious that many deaf/hoh persons still do not understand how LN (Local Number) Procedure works out with VRS. I will try to do series of vlogs to clarify a few of the LN issues by focusing on one or two items of particular issue. Here is the [...]
Media Tech Culture Thu, Feb 12 2009

Chandler Rebuttal Letter
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. As those of you who follow Edsalert faithfully, this is the ongoing political story of Ex-Chair Martin vs Chandler. I posted first two vlogs on this where a first story had a committee report that blasted Martin and the report contains Chandler's emails that were strong in his criticism of the reimbursement rates for VRS indu...
Media Language Legal Culture Mon, Feb 09 2009

Smile On Face
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. With apologies to the original author, I changed to fit the VRS issue. Hope you smiled, too. eyes wide open & thumbs way --- TO ALL VRS USERS! All users will now be required to look happy while connecting to Video Interpreter using a VRS provider. You can purchase federally-approved supplies at very little cost . Too many confusing [...]
Media Language Tech Culture Fri, Feb 06 2009

Philly.com; A Blistering Report on VRS
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Many of you already read this one. A not very pleasant report on VRS; article stipulates "that costs are too high" for providing VRS; that deaf/hoh are not paying for the services; and so on. Interstate TRS Fund is paying $6.64 per min and the article said one of VRS provider break even cost is at [...]
Language Legal Culture Thu, Feb 05 2009

All.. This is a completly different issue; my pardon, but I...
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This is a completly different issue; my pardon, but I thought you all will find this very interesting. It is an old one, so many of you probably already read that; if so, my apologies. Surdophobia means fear of deaf professional. SURDOPHOBIA As I look back at the times I've worked with hearing professionals at the [...]
Audism Art and Storytelling Culture Fri, Jan 30 2009

Petition to the FCC by Group of TRS Providers
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. You all will find this interesting! Basically 9 TRS providers - ATT, CAC, CSDVRS, GoAmerica, LifeLinks, Snap Telecomm, Soreonson Comm, Sprint NexTel, and Viable have petitioned the FCC to clarify that multiple CAs (Communication Assistants - really same as telephone interpreters) which include video Interpreters, TTY CAs, STS CAs, IP Rela...
Media Language Tech Legal Culture Fri, Jan 30 2009

Ex-FCC Chair Martin Defends His Actions
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. The very first thing in his letter that he defended was his actions with telecommunications relay service. Discussed the rates of VRS; said it was under his reign that VRS prices were lowered, and then went on to say that he defended current rates based on the deaf/hoh communities feedback. (Note: see how important it is to send...
Media Language Tech Legal Culture Thu, Jan 22 2009

Technology - more on service than devices?
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Interesting article which seems to re-affirm the trend we're seeing in the VRS industry. In the beginning, it was enough that deaf/hoh just get the "device"; that is, video phone. Not any more. Over the years, the trend is now we look at the quality of service and features of the Video Phone. It seems that no...
Language Tech Fri, Jan 16 2009

What Can We Expect from Number Order?
Ed's Telecom Alert Happy New Year, Folks! Here are two links to the Number Order by the FCC. First one is the “advisory comments” of the Number Order, and the second one is the Number Order in itself in its all complication splendor. FCC Consumer Advisory (same one as the last post) Full blown Order on Number - if you want gritty details, click [...]
Media Tech Legal Tue, Jan 06 2009

FCC Consumer Advisory
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. A quick one. This is a consumer advisory from FCC on the Order of ten-digit phone number and recent clarification of the Order. I will do a series of vlogs on this one, but want to get this out to y'all. Basically this advisory comments are education comments on what to expect from the new ten-digit [...]
Media Language Tech Culture Wed, Dec 31 2008

Analysis of Chair Martin
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This link shows that the FCC Chair has done no wrong, and the writer offers a realistic perspective of this sticky issue. Chair Martin Article basically said Chair Martin has not violated any rules other than "bad manners" and dysfunctional management of the FCC. Further the article says that the committee as well as other congressmen hope tha...
Media Language Tech Culture Wed, Dec 10 2008

Allegations Against FCC Chair Martin
Ed's Telecom Alert All... One word - WOW. Remember this is staff report prepared for the use of Committee on Energy and Commerce from US House of represenatives (110th Congress). This is serious committee. One thing this may do is call the attention to the rates for the VRS providers and the Congressmen will review that carefully. I will [...
Media Language Tech Legal Tue, Dec 09 2008

HamiltonVRS Bows Out of VRS Industry
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Well, well..looks like HamiltonVRS will no longer be involved in the VRS world. Check out the link.. Hamilton Letter Birnbaum Interpreting Service (BIS) had contract with HamiltonVRS and not too long ago they parted their ways. BIS now has contract with CSDVRS. So I guess that played a part in HamiltonVRS's decision ...
Tech Tue, Dec 02 2008

NASRA Files Request of Clarification to the FCC on a few...
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. National Association for State Relay Administration - NASRA - recently filed a request of clarification to the FCC as to whether a few of VRS practices are legal or not. Before I belabor on this point, NASRA is dear to my heart as I'm one of the charter members who first formed this prestigious NASRA about [...]
Tech Legal Mon, Dec 01 2008

Obama Considering Candidates for the FCC
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Looks like Obama is now considering candidates for the FCC Commissioners positions; I believe two will be vacant; that is, assuming Martin the Chair is not willing to step down to regular Commissioner, so that would give Obama two choices (my opinion on the Martin). Check out the link.. Obama's Choices eyes open & thumbs up, Ed
Media Tech Legal Tue, Nov 11 2008

Federal Order Stay of a FCC Ruling
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. On this one I will remain neutral. This one is really critical because it has a far-reaching impact on what VRS providers can and cannot do. When the FCC ruled that TRS providers (actually specifically VRS providers) are not allowed to use Call Database - of which folks sign in to get video phone and Video [...]
Language Tech Legal Fri, Nov 07 2008

Should Features of VP Be Passed on to New Default VRS...
Ed's Telecom Alert Folks, We have a tough issue! I am very curious what you all think about that. Remember the Number Order from the FCC indicate that we have to choose a VRS provider as a default VRS provider so we can get the 10-digit phone number (henceforth called "TN")? Okay, now the order seems to say that we [...]
Media Language Tech Legal Culture Tue, Oct 28 2008

Wow - Firing Interpreters and Closing One VRS Center
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Now heard-tell that SorensonVRS fired several Video Interpreters because they performed unethical or illegal action of racking up inappropriate VRS minutes. Happened in SorensonVRS Austin center. I understood that SorensonVRS paid back all the VRS minutes that had been accumulated by nefarious video interpreters and paid back to the federal...
Media Tech Legal Wed, Oct 22 2008

Weakened ADA?
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Although this is a comment, it is a well thought out comment. Weakened ADA Comment? Basically it is about new modification to the ADA that weakened the ADA thus weakened our inherent rights to be an individual. I am first to admit that I'm not well versed on ADA except for Titlt IV (Title IV of ADA is [...]
Tech Legal Wed, Oct 22 2008

FCC PN on SorensonVRS’s Request for Limited Waiver on...
Ed's Telecom Alert All. The following link is asking for comments on SorensonVRS's request for limited waiver on proxy numbers. SorensonVRS is asking the FCC to allow one year of using proxy numbers after the 10 digit real phone have been distributed (presumably Jan 1, 2009). First wave of comments already passed, the second "Reply Comments" due...
Tech Legal Mon, Oct 20 2008

State Gov’t Raiding TRS Funds
Ed's Telecom Alert (video clip still has some noise; I haven't figured out how to remove this yet - my apologies. I'm using Roxio's VideoWave - video editor. Hopefully next video clip this will not be an issue) All.. South Dakota Gov't raided TRS Fund for other non-relay uses. This can start a dominoe effect where other gov't will find [.....
Language Tech Legal Thu, Oct 16 2008

Clarification on LD Charges for New Ten Digit Phone Numbers
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Based on feedback from quite a few of you, I think the long distance charges for the new ten digit phone numbers are confusing. First of all the ten-digit phone numbers you get from a VRS providers are real numbers - not proxy and not 800/866). These "real" numbers use regional-based area codes like 281 (Houston, [...]
Tech Tue, Oct 07 2008

DHHIG Survey
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing In Government, Inc (DHHIG) did a video communication survey and published results. Very interesting. DHHIG Survey DHHIG is a national non-profit organization which is an employee support group focusing on communication needs. The survey is done to gather information on the impact of video phones on federal employees or the im...
Language Tech Culture Wed, Oct 01 2008

FCC Upholds Its Decision To Fine a TV Station
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. This article is self explanatory. Quote: "FCC upholds $25,000 fine against KUSI-TV San Diego for failing to provide adequate visual warnings to hearing-impaired viewers during coverage of California wildfires occurred in October 2003". FCC Stands Firm KUDOS to the FCC for doing that despite the lawyers from the TV Station that challenged the fine....
Tech Legal Mon, Sep 29 2008

RESOLVED! Thanks to Persistent James..
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Check this website out. Basically, James Northcutt had problem with "interoperability" between SNAPVRS and HOVRS. He wanted to use OJO, but use HOVRS as the preferred VRS provider. When HOVRS put in new platform, then problem started. James persistently addressed this problem with both VRS providers and contacted the FCC on this.&...
Tech Mon, Sep 29 2008

The FCC PN on Reimbursable Costs for VRS/IP Providers
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Lot of the FCC stuff I have not covered the last two months that I took hiatus while focusing on the PUC affairs. Since I am no longer with the PUC - I can start focusing on issues for edsalert; I've decided to start most recent FCC Public Notices (PN) and work way back to older ones. [...]
Tech Legal Fri, Sep 26 2008

Meter for Internet Use?
Ed's Telecom Alert All.. Yuk! This article is basically about Time Warner using a meter on customer to limit their "excessive" use of Internet network. Meter for Internet Use Article This is bit scary. What about us deaf/hon who use video phones and VRS extensively? Or for that matter those of VRS providers who employ deaf/hoh to make VRS call...
Media Language Tech Tue, Sep 23 2008