FCC Expected to OK Video Relay Service Order, Further Rulemaking Notice
The FCC on Wednesday is expected to approve an order requiring Video Relay Service companies to submit to yearly audits and have their executives certify company financial records under penalty of perjury and give federal whistle-blower protections to VRS employees and agents, commission officials said. Relay companies would be forbidden to be paid by the minute for their services and wouldn’t be able to hand out bonuses for increasing per-minute collections, under the proposal.
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The order would require relay companies to keep their financial records for at least five years, forbid them from routing calls to their employees’ homes, require deaf customers to inform their relay providers when they're traveling abroad and need call assistance, and forbid the companies from billing the government for remote training that they themselves promote. The order would require the companies to adopt automated record-keeping programs, and ban the use of subcontractors and revenue-sharing agreements.
The commission also is expected to release a further rulemaking notice, asking whether it should take over the certification for relay service vendors, commission officials said. States can currently certify relay service vendors. They said the FCC was expected to approve the order and rulemaking notice Tuesday, but Commissioner Michael Copps held out. He insisted that relay companies be given a longer transition before being required to ban telecommuting by their interpreters, the officials said. It wasn’t clear where the matter stood late Tuesday. Copps’ office had no comment, nor did an FCC spokesman.
Under the expected order, subcontractors can still obtain relay service certification, but they would be required to obtain a waiver through the FCC, agency officials said. The subcontractors would have to show deeds or leases for their call centers, company ownership arrangements, employee lists, equipment licensing agreements, employment agreements for executives and interpreters and financial documents. Companies also wouldn’t be reimbursed when their interpreters use visual privacy screens. Callers can still use visual privacy screens, but if they're unresponsive for at least five minutes, they'd be warned and then cut off from the call.
Relay service providers have billed the government an average of 8 million minutes monthly, records kept by the National Exchange Carrier Association show. Over the last 12 months, relay companies have taken in $530 million, NECA records show. In late 2009, federal grand juries indicted 26 relay service executives and employees of seven companies in nine states on fraud charges. The suspects were accused of bilking the public out of tens of millions of public dollars by ginning up “r calls” -- designed solely to run up minutes on the network by having employees call the system during rest breaks between calls. The companies then charged the FCC up to $390 per minute, federal officials alleged in November 2009.