NECA Recommendations For New Contribution Factor
31 03 2010Folks..
National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc submits a revised cost for TRS Contribution Factor (telephone companies that pay into Interstate TRS Fund).
Be warned, though, that this is report that only CPA loves. ;-]
Quotes:
"Actual demand for interstate relay services, particularly Video Relay Service (VRS), has significantly under-run the projections the Administrator submitted in its annual filing for the July 2009 – June 2010 funding year (2009 Administrator Filing).1 The result is an estimated decrease in the fund size from $891.0 million to $ 701.8 million."
"Lower than projected demand for TRS services, particularly Video Relay Service has created a significant surplus in the Interstate TRS Fund. Therefore the TRS Administrator proposes a revised fund size of $701.8 million and a revised contribution factor of 0.00886 for TRS for the 2009-2010 funding year."
NECA New Contribution Factor
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
Long Link: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7020399482
Will that affect the consumer indirectly?
wow, revising the forecast by approx 20%! That’s predicting roughly 30 million less VRS minutes.
i’m familiar with the call volume purple and viable were having, and they don’t add up to revenues of $200 million. should we then conclude that other providers have ceased minute-pumping practices as well?
i’m also wondering if this shortfall is partially attributed to the current fcc practice of withholding funds.
What are those 3 tiers of VRS?
Funding base of 79,206,066,829 is a lot of money. Where does the money come from?
I thought NECA would have the Interstate TRS Fund Council meet next week for approval of its recommendations before they go to the public. Am I missing something?
Purple has just filed to suspend its duty to file reports with the SEC, based on having fewer than 300 shareholders of record.
This means that when they do another layoff (as they did two weeks ago when they pink-slipped 53 people) they will not have to report it publicly.
How does this square with their claim to be the most transparent provider?
Sonny,
Hmm – this report is by John Ricker and the report is supplement to previous (?) docket.
“In accordance with the Commission’s rules, this Supplement has been filed in the above-reference docket.”
I don’t know if “supplement” requires approval of Interstate TRS Fund Council or not?
eyes open & thumbs up…
Ed, there have been a couple of interesting developments in the last week. Hopefully you will post about them.
First, Purple filed with the SEC to remove its obligation to file reports because it has fewer than 300 shareholders. This means they will not be filing their annual report and do not have to file any other reports either, such as the ones about their layoffs. So much for transparency.
Second, Sorenson filed an ex parte with the FCC asking for a new rate methodology based on price caps rather than costs. They want the rate to decrease in each of the next five years.
Both of these developments are worthy of comment and discussion here.
This is great. It is about time that the deaf community stop complaining and stop actins as if they are victims. The only people that benefit from the current rates are the executives (hypocrites) fromt he VRS providers that are packing on the money in their bank accounts. They come on all blogs and forms of communication for the deaf and state that tey care about our quality of life, yet what do they actually do for us? Nothing, just like the politicians. I say that they should cut the rates to a falt rate. There is an array of communications mediums out there that we can use. Once we realize that all we have been doing is making those executives richer and that there is more to the dissability act to protect us, we will then becoe an integral part of society. I think the FCC should shut all VRS providers down and evaluate them first. Then approve the on es that truly have our best interest in mind.