Ed’s Telecom Alert

All..

Effective July 21, 2008, the Customer Protection Division of Texas Public Utility Commission has openings for a Relay Texas Administrator and a STAP Coordinator. 

Please check the HR website PUC Positions for further details.

In the afternoon of August 29, 2008 the last working day - actually strictly speaking, it will be midnight of August 31 - I will retire.  So the position will be available.

Please do check out these two positions and see if you qualify.  

One is Relay Texas Administrator which oversees Relay Texas (state relay service) and portion of Specialized Telecommunications Assistive Program (STAP). This one is open until filled; and the other is the STAP Coordinator which oversees STAP per statutes of STAP law which applies to the PUC. This one is open until August 1. 

Both of these jobs are challenging yet fulfilling.  

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed B 

Folks, 

Two Special Events in Lubbock, TX

Wed., July 30th 2008

Mr. Gatti’s Pizza

5001 50th St.  Lubbock, TX  79414

5 PM to 6 PM                        Sprint BlackBerry Sales Event

Come and learn more about the hottest selling wireless pagers for the Deaf.  Come and see the BlackBerry Curve, available in either black or red!  Our unlimited data only plan costs only $29.99 per month!  Come and meet the Sprint Regional Sales Manager, Ken Brown, who is Deaf.  He will be happy to answer any of your questions about Sprint BlackBerry.

If you bring your voucher for "2 Way Paging Device" to this event, you will be able to pick your BlackBerry right there! 

6 PM to 6 30 PM                  Free PIZZA and DRINKS

6:30 PM to 8:30 PM            Relay Texas Town Hall Meeting

Come and share your feedback, comments, and concerns about Relay Texas (711) program.  Ed Bosson from TX PUC and Robert Giuntoli from Sprint will be there to hear your comments and share new information on new relay technologies.  They both are Deaf and will give presentation in ASL.  CART (Captioning) will also be provided.

Open to the public.  Open to all Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Speech-Disabled customers and their families and friends.

Any questions?  Email RG at robert.giuntoli@sprint.com or ed.bosson@puc.state.tx.us

More information can also be found at www.relaytexas.com and www.sprintrelay.com.

All..

Texas Public Utility Commission along with Sprint Relay is proud to announce a still another FIRST in Relay Texas.    

Before I tell you what it is, here is the rationale.  I’ve received feedback from persons with speech disabilities that it often is difficult to make a 7-1-1 call.  The issue is that sometimes relay agent does not understand what he/she wants which is just to transfer the relay call to Speech-to-Speech (STS) service or relay agent simply hang up thinking it is a prank call or STS user wait forever to finally get transferred and connected to STS service.  

In checking with Father of STS, Dr Bob Segelman, he suggested why not add an option to the 7-1-1 where a person with speech disability simply have to hit one number and be routed directly to the STS center.    Well, I checked with Sprint Relay and they said can be done.    A few weeks ago Sprint Relay with TPUC’s blessing went ahead and changed 7-1-1 to add the STS option.  

For those of you who can’t hear, the new 7-1-1 message goes like this:

 "You have reached Relay Texas

Press 1 to place a relay call

Press 2 for a speech to speech relay call"

Approx after 10 seconds or so of no action, TTY message from relay agent automatically pick up.

I wanted to mention that TPUC fully appreciates Sprint Relay for not charging for this wonderful service. 

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed B
RT Admin