June 2009 NECA Report
19 08 2009Folks..
These two reports from NECA are revealing. My interpretation of the data that it shows that the FCC’s message is finally getting through to the TRS industry (remember that TRS means traditional, VRS, IP Relay, and all that) that FCC no longer tolerate relay providers that process illegal calls. I guess the possible threats of FBI, OIG, or CGB (latter two are under FCC) investigating relay providers with a fine-tooth review likely caused most of providers clean up their act. In doing so, what NECA projected was off. Keep in mind that NECA has lot of experiences in projecting growths, so for NECA to be off is a good indication that there may a factor or two that they were not aware of. Maybe like these data-influencing incidents: the closing HawkRelay, and Viable being visited by FBI. Perhaps TRS providers observed these federal actions and they decided to either clean up or tighten the screening of their relay calls to ensure the relay calls are legal? As consequence, the relay minutes went down?
June 2009 Call Data Look at the row of “% Difference”. It means what was projected vs actual. The minus % is intriguing.
VRS Min Actual VS Projection This one shows the actual minutes vs projected on VRS only.
Hopefully this means TRS is finally focusing on consumers only, and not on how to manufacture minutes. Now, this is only my interpretation. Some may disagree with me on this and simply say that Summer is notoriously slow; my counter would be NECA would be aware of this factor as they have worked with TRS industry many years and probably already factored in their estimate of that?
Anyhow, hats off to the FCC for finally taking action. Federal agency may move slowly, but ultimately they get job done.
I suspect the whole situation is not over yet, though.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
Even though the efforts to minimize manufactured minutes is long overdue, I am extremely concerned with the method the FCC is using nowdays. The FCC, with assistance from the FBI, is relying on information obtained from interpreters who are supposed to have similar exemption privileges as the priests and lawyers. This process is destroying the trust between interpreters and people with hearing disabilities. I am hopeful that the FCC will issue a public apology for using this process and initiate an independent monitoring system to observe actual conversations randomly with ALL providers immediately.
Need to start fine VRS co. No fine means nothing to VRS!
Apologists: I trust the video interpreters discussed about TYPES of calls they interpreted rather than discussing the CONTENTS of calls of any TYPE made. Nothing is betrayed unless CONTENTS (not to be confused with TYPES) were discussed. Sometimes we are faced with choosing the lesser of two evils in order to clean up acts. This situation may fall within this kind of scenario. Were the codes of ethics designed with this situation in mind? No. Never. Simply, you Apologists need to get on with the program. Whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this colossal mess which I’m not at all surprised about. I know the shakedown is high-impact. I know sports organizations and others will be severely affected. I knew about brown-bagging in places such as the sports-related Website owned and managed by a “consulting” company that has been frozen since July. Some Websites are not advertised by relay outfits brown-bagging as long as hours are racked up bring lots of money to the brown-bagging relay outfits. Keeping a low-profile is among strategies. Nowadays, an act increasingly mastered by many employees and contractors within the relay industry especially VRS is now “saving face” as evidenced by one executive praising Snap!VRS ethics in light of his company being acquired. Most stinking of all are the reactive-face-saving tactics not simply being proactive and ethical. Big brother, I’m one of only 20% of deaf that are employed and one of a very tiny percentage with gainful income. Yes, I pay taxes. Please go after them! Don’t be afraid of shaking trees so hard the Deaf structures may be compromised. It’ll bring about EQUALITY!
Sonny:
Your logic is flawed. Even priests are required by law to inform authorities if a person admits to them that they committed a gross felony act such as murder.
And the RID Code of Professional Conduct in regards to confidentiality can be interpreted, in a literal manner, as applying ONLY to the actual act of interpreting, not in regards to what the interpreter sees/reads while they are “on the clock.”
Otherwise, your argument suggests that an interpreter who observes a person believed to be committing a crime is required to remain silent about it. The courts have overhwlemingly ruled that an interpreter can be compelled to testify as to what they have seen/interpreted regardless of how much an interpreter may disagree with such a stance.
Sonny,
“The FCC, with assistance from the FBI, is relying on the information obtained from interpreters who are supposed to have similar exemption privileges as the priests and lawyers”
Upon analyzing and talking with a few interpreters, I have recently come to to think that this may be an incorrect assumption. It seems they are not asking for privileged communication that is protected under the TRS rules on confidentiality. In fact, my understanding is that they won’t hear any of this. They only are gathering information about schemes and arrangement with the intent of manufacturing minutes. These source may come from anyone who witnessed these arrangements and activities. So the contents of conversations themselves are protected.
Ed, I’m more of an agreement with you — I think the # of VRS calls dropped because of summer events. And remember, there was DSA Conference in Las Vegas in June.
I don’t think # of calls dropped had anything to do with Viable. The FBI visited them during last week of June. So it’s pretty early to see impact on minutes of VRS calls. I think if we look at months of July and August, we’ll see better picture of # of VRS calls.
I agree that it is very likely that the drop was due to the industry clamp down on “manufactured minutes”, because if you look at the summer months in the other years, the calls did not drop as significantly- they actually went up in some situations.
David and Scot,
I stand corrected – at least part of it. There were already rumors flying and lot of buzz about illegal and unethical practices before June that VRS industry cannot help but notice that and perhaps decided to take proactive measures? Yes, July and Aug reporting will be interesting to see and analyze…
eyes open & thumbs up…
Interesting, interesting! Please do keep us in the loop. I always appreciate of the updates on VRS, thank you, Ed!
Just to add my $.02 worth – After reading the allegations in the FBI complaints themselves, it did appear to me that there was nothing about the content of calls mentioned. In fact, there were places where it seemed like it would have been natural for the FBI to mention something about the content, and they didn’t do it. Reading between the lines, I came to the conclusion that FBI had very consciously stayed away from content – probably to give some comfort to users and the industry that it is reasonable to continue to assume their calls are confidential.
In the interest of full disclosure, before I came to NexTalk ( http://www.nextalk.com ) I was a lawyer in a prior life. Ed already knows this, but others probably don’t. Please don’t hold it against me!
Todd,
Another lawyer? [ha] and our previous discussions indicate you probably were a good lawyer; uhmm, yeah I knew you were a lawyer as well. I feel safe to say you’re not a shyster ;-]
Your gut interpretation, I believe, is right on the nose.
eyes open & thumbs up…