ITU Standards
by George Skorkowski, founder and managing director of DSPG Ltd.
I'll be talking about the V.18 protocol, the real hardware and
software.
Why V.18?
1. It's an international standard, being used in Europe, Australia,
and NZ, and it allows people with text phones that use different
protocols to communicate. The US has one standard, but Europe has
multiple standards, and they don't play well together.
2. It provides a bridge between old technology and new technologies,
including higher speed modems and multimedia.
3. V.18 can interoperate with any existing text telephone; it
facilitates future global integration with the Internet and multimedia.
4. It provides for more reliable call setup and user-friendly operation.
V.18 Modes
V.18 supports the following protocols used in the indicated
countries: V.21 (Sweden, UK), Baudot (USA, UK, Ireland), EDT (Italy,
Germany), Bell 103 (USA), v.23 (France), DTMF (Denmark, Sweden,
Netherlands)
V.18 can support simultaneous text and voice; a standard is in the
works.
The ultimate goal of V.18 is to allow any device to support any mode,
so that a TTY user can talk to a PC user or a wireless PDA user. We will
have succeeded when a standard device supports video, text, and voice,
and no special tools are required for universal communication.
Telecommunications standards are made by the ITU, the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the IETF; the
standards are voluntary unless governments (like our FCC) make them
mandatory.
V.18 conformance testing is important; test equipment is sort of a
niche product, so there aren't a lot of testers available. But if you
have one, you can verify that you have a proper implementation.
We can build phones that can support many different protocols for
different countries; it can be done today, but no one has done it. If
someone provided such a device, to use the phone in another country
would be just a matter of switching protocol.
The TextLink 800 portable V.18 modem is an interesting device. It
connects to a PC's com port and provides a full implementation of V.18
and CTM (mobile) recommendations.
Another interesting technology is a relay server that supports
simultaneous voice and text. This is important, especially for hard of
hearing people, who may not want to use text exclusively. One obvious
benefit is more easily implemented VCO (Voice Carry Over).
TexBox is a server that accepts a text phone call and routes it to a
PC on LAN; it's similar to the Nxi product. A Multiple Modem Card (type
DS980) contains 32 V.18 modems on one card; no additional software is
required on client PCs, because they use a java applet running in a
browser.
Q: Kevin, you represent the largest TTY manufacturer. What are your
thoughts about standardization?
A: I intend to follow up on a couple of the things I've learned here.
Q: Karen, if we got really good standards, would the FCC support
them?
A: No, you really need a law to go with the standards. For something
like this, I can't think of any law that would require real-time
communication across protocols. The problem is the information services
are not covered by Section 255. The FCC is still trying to decide (since
1999) if VoIP is telecommunications or not. The only possibility I see
is as a relay service - if the capability for the TTY user to
communicate with another type of device is viewed as a type of relay,
possibly.
Comment: Functional equivalence is key to a lot of our legislation.
Hearing people can call anywhere in the world, and deaf people can't. If
that were a requirement, we might be able to force something.
Comment: How do we get these standards into the mainstream? If the
standards aren't cost effective, they're not going to happen.
Q: I'm curious about the deaf consumer in Europe. How many people use
V.18?
A: For the UK, all users of TextDirect use V.18. We currently have about
8000 people using the service. We think there are 450,000 people in the
UK who would benefit form relay.
Comment: One other law is section 508. The standards exist to require
the federal government to procure and maintain equipment that is
accessible. At some point the GSA (Government Services Administration)
will be updating their standards, and we might be able to get
requirements in that way.
Comment: Lots of people in the UK have text phones, but many don't
like to use relay. There used to be a registration required, and people
didn't like that. Some people use SMS; others use FAX. People hanging up
on relay service also happens there.
Comment: Everyone in Europe thinks we have the best system in the US.
They're shocked to learn that we have gaping holes here.
Comment: In the Middle East, people use SMS on a mobile phone,
because it takes forever to get a landline installed. People in Germany
use fax. Every country has different technologies and different
preferences. The only way to ensure accessibility is to have everything
accessible and interoperable.
Comment: We've been working on TTY and IP networks for 9 years.
Gateways are how we merge incompatible protocols. I'm glad to be here to
see how we can connect with the international community.
Comment: We're trying to start from scratch to set up communications
access in SE Asia. I still don't know which technology would be best to
introduce to my region.
Comment: Our site has a list of standards that are related to this
area. We can't post the standards, because the bodies charge for this.
But we have forums where people can discuss the issues.
