IP Captioned Telephone Service
The FCC has just approved cost reimbursement for IP Captioned
Telephone Service. This is a HUGE decision for people in the hearing
loss community, and we heartily applaud all the folks who worked so hard
to make this happen!
December
2006 - FCC Approves IP Captioned Telephone
December
2006 - FCC Approves IP Captioned Telephone Service
December
2006 - FCC Statement on IP Captioned Telephone Service
January 2007 - Here's a great primer
on how to use IP Captioned Telephone
February 2007 - Here's the FCC
Consumer Fact Sheet on IP Captioned Telephone Service
September 2007 -
Here's our coverage of the Captioned Telephone Workshop Presented by the
CapTel folks at the 2007 TDI Conference
March 2008 -
Hamilton Relay Launches Innovative Web Captioned
Telephone (CapTel(r)) for On-line Captioned Telephone Calls
March 2008 - Sprint Announces
WebCapTel
March 2008 - WebCapTel
Update
October 2008 - Sprint
Launches WebCapTel(r) On the Go
October 2008 -
Hamilton Introduces Single-Phone, Mobile CapTel(r)
Solution
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By Cheryl Heppner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2006
Editor: Here's some wonderful news from the FCC! They have approved
coverage of IP captioned telephone service from the Internet TRS Fund.
This means that captioned telephone service will be available over the
Internet!
Here's Cheryl's report hot off the presses!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Federal Communications Commission voted today that Internet
Protocol (IP) captioned telephone service is a form of
telecommunications relay service (TRS) that can be compensated from the
Internet TRS Fund.
Lise Hamlin represented NVRC at the meeting. which was delayed from
its planned 9:30 am start to 1 pm this afternoon. She said that the
comments made by the FCC Commissioners were very positive. They should
soon be available at www.fcc.gov.
As we said in an email news article on December 14, 2006, this is
very exciting news for millions of people. The captioned telephone
enables individuals with hearing loss to be able to hear a telephone
conversation and simultaneously see it with captions.
With captioned telephone, you can call a friend by dialing the
friend's telephone number. Your captioned telephone connects with a
captioning service. As you converse, your friend's response will show up
on the CapTel's screen as captions. The captions come from a captionist
who hears only your friend's side of the conversation.
Learn more about this service at www.captionedtelephone.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On December 20, 2006, the FCC approved captioned
telephone service over the Internet for reimbursement from the Internet
TRS Fund. This is a VERY important development for people with hearing
loss, because it means that captioned telephone service will eventually
become much more readily available than it is today!
This approval means that the Federal government
will pay for captioned telephone service in which captioning information
is sent over the Internet. The technical details of the program are not
yet clear, and implementations may vary with various vendors. (I believe
that one of the results of this decision will be the entry into the
market of multiple vendors. This can only be good for the consumer,
because it will foster improved service and reduced cost.)
The ideal implementation would allow any user with
a standard telephone and an Internet-connected computer to have access
to captioned telephone service. Implementing this system for outgoing
calls seems relatively straight-forward; implementing it for incoming
calls will be more of a challenge.
Ultratec, the company that currently provides the
analog CapTel service, is planning a limited consumer trial for early
next year. We'll be interested to hear user reports on this service.
We'll also be keeping our eyes peeled for announcements of alternative
IP captioned television services from competing vendors. I believe this
is a huge market that will attract a lot of attention very quickly!
