Article on VRS/FCC
6 10 2010Good People,
This article seemingly provide a comprehensive report. I thought it covered essential issues regarding VRS industry and the FCC. Very well written.
Strongly suggest you click to the link to get the story.
Quotable quotes:
"Witness the schism between the Federal Communications Commission and the market leader in video relay service, or VRS."
Note the word "schism".
"Seldom has an endeavor so magnanimous evolved into an industry so contentious. Yet it doesn’t take much to figure out why. VRS is a modern growth story capable of delivering enviable returns. It also boasts fat margins enhanced, historically, by slapdash oversight."
"(GTCR did not respond to calls or e"-mails regarding the return that peHUB attributes to Sorenson.)"
"The losses in court, while significant, weren’t nearly as debilitating to the FCC as a loss of its own devising: control over VRS compensation rates. The agency bungled this one from the get-go by basing those rates on projected costs and projected minutes of use. Only it allowed the VRS providers themselves to make the projections."
Whew…
There are lot more..so click and read.
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
The Deal Mag Article Long Link: http://www.thedeal.com/newsweekly/insights/a-failure-of-communication.php
VRS opens up a vast new world of opportunity and access to Deaf people who use ASL. The continued availability of quality VRS services is critical to the American tax-payer because VRS allows ASL using Deaf people employment opportunities that more than offset the legitimate cost of VRS.
However, as stated in the article:
“Public trust and private equity are at odds almost by definition.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act, written in 1990 – which requires TRS services – anticipates that the land-line telephone companies will provide the TRS service as disability accommodation. Such an approach implies that the provider will keep costs to a minimum and therefore requires the FCC to set minimum quality standards. Over time, the Public Utility Commissions (and other agencies) in the individual states decided to contract for a single “at-cost” TRS provider to ensure high quality low-cost TRS services.
The Republican (pro-business, pro-billionaire) administration of George W. Bush turned that model on it’s head and allowed “open season, come-one-come-all” for-profit private companies to take over VRS and fleece the American rate-payers.
Now that the assigned phone number system allows VRS providers to identify the points of origin and termination of each call, we can only hope that the current FCC will cede control to the individual states who can return to the low-cost, high quality TRS model of the previous decade.
An interesting, well-researched article. Does highlight the ‘tetonic plates’ now gridlocking the entire VRS industry at FCC. Either an earthquake happens, and the whole thing’s blown up, or pressures ease and things smooth themselves out.
u can’t do that to rhode island
Cousin Vinny,
Or like the movie 2012.
“the whole thing’s blown up, or pressures ease and things smooth themselves out.”
hoping for the latter
Well, people. You need to stop blaming George W. Bush… He is no longer president. Also, folks, our government is not a dictatorship. We have a Congress .Whatever happened in the past with VRS , is probably going to happen.. Whether it was a Republican or Democratic President. VRS is an industry that was outsourced to the private industry. The cost to do business is expensive.
Either people stop whining…. or give the whole thing to the government to run. That would be a disaster!! Look at the post office, you can’t even get your mail delivered on time; nor can they balance a budget…. too much over spending. Welfare, Medicare fraud…. its a crying shame!!
Sorenson had the capital to start of the industry and now everyone is mad…. Would you prefer to live in a communist country.. where no one would even care about you?
I agree that there is alot of corporate greed, but bickering back and forth doesn’t solve anything either.
Let’s encourage the government to support more innovative cheaper ways to run the technology. Better working conditions for interpreters. We are over worked often…… I am afraid if the government took over it .. our pay would drop dramatically and we would be forced to work a 40 hour week.
VRS work is extremely stressful and exhausting work because of the two dimensional nature of the work. Our eyes experience fatique and our brains turn to mush.. even after a 6 hour work shift.
This talk about cheap cheap cheap… will definitely leave the most important aspects ofthe process. The interpreter who has to work to provide an accurate , interpretation…
Let;s get real people!!
I disagree with jk-ii’s comments that when trs was run by the states, it was high quality. I would beg to differ: under the states, all the deaf & hoh got was very old tty service.
It’s only under the federal VRS program that innovation has come to the field. If it was left to the states, we’d all be stuck using ttys. Look at the options available today for video relay: videophone, pc client, mac client, and recently even mobile iphone clients. This has been tremendously liberating for the deaf/hoh. Few if any would ever want to go back to the tty days.
Commentators,
I think we all agree that balance needs to be found.
JK-II is an old friend of mine even tho I’ve never met this person. Like VRS commentator, I respectfully disagree that states will improve VRS. If anything, going to states will reduce to two or three VRS providers and innovations will cease.
The irony of that is the one VRS provider that complains of reducing rates is the one that is likely to offer the lowest bid price.
To go thru RFP, states would need to give winning bidder (esp if not already providing VRS) at least 6 or more months to get VRS up and running. Bidder would need enormous capital to make it work.
No, I prefer what it is now; just need overhaul and fine-tune the VRS system.
How many VRS providers are owned by equity firms? Are the providers beholdened to the almighty dollar or the public interest?
CNW,
Good question. To answer that, what is “equity firms”? If you mean “private equity” where there are “blocks” of shares invested by outside of VRS providers. We all know SVRS, AmericanVRS, and Purple are that. SnapVRS and ZVRS have that I think, but the investors leave up to VRS CEO to make the decisions. I know Convo does not have one as the owners are the ones where funds came from. If I am wrong in my assessment, please let us know. Any others you know are from private equity?
true about snap. but when the main investor bailed, it was sad.
(“AmericanVRS”? WTHeck?)
Gusnlambchopq,
I am intrigued by your comment that “…giving the whole thing (VRS) to the government would be a disaster. That VRS exists at all is because of government.
Social Security (including SSDI) is a remarkably successful government program. The Veteran’s Administration is often cited as remarkably efficient and high in quality. It’s a government program. The government, in the form of the FCC, already controls much of VRS, which by private industry standards has been a smashing success. Please explain again why “giving” it to the government would be a disaster?