Des Moines Register, June 4, 2010, Friday

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Des Moines Register

June 4, 2010, Friday

Proposal made to FCC has deaf Iowans worried

BYLINE: By, REGINA ZILBERMINTS

Don Miksell of Des Moines remembers how difficult telecommunication used to be.

As a deaf person, he had to rely on others to make phone calls for him or use bulky equipment to communicate.

Then, about four years ago, the 46-year-old Miksell began using video relay service technology, where a deaf per-son signs into a camera and a remote interpreter translates it into spoken words.

It's quick and efficient, and because of an Americans with Disabilities Act provision that the deaf community shouldn't have to pay more for a phone call than a hearing person, Miksell doesn't have to pay the $5 per minute it costs the company he uses to make the call.

But a new proposal to the Federal Communications Commission by the National Exchange Carrier Association, which handles the funding for communication services for speech- and hearing-impaired individuals, could drastically decrease how much companies that provide video relay services are reimbursed.

One company with several offices in Iowa, Sorenson VRS, has already filed a response with the FCC saying the proposal would bankrupt it. All five members of Iowa's House delegation sent a letter asking the FCC not to make changes in reimbursements. In addition, people like Miksell are worried what a change would mean for their ability to communicate with others.
Video relay service technology has seen explosive growth in the past five years, according to the FCC, which regu-lates the industry.

Numbers are not available for how many Iowans use the service because their calls can be routed through any call center in the nation. But by next year, the number of minutes used nationwide is projected to have increased 261 percent from 2005.

But the industry, where companies are reimbursed by the FCC for each minute of use, has been plagued by fraud. In November 2009, 26 people were indicted for allegedly billing the fund for illegitimate calls, and several of them have since pleaded guilty.

Companies that provide video relay service technology are reimbursed through a tiered rate system that has been in place since 2007. The largest companies receive $6.24 per minute.
Those rates will expire June 30, and the current proposal's four options suggest cutting reimbursement rates any-where from 8.3 percent to 38 percent for the largest companies - those who use more than 500,000 minutes per month.

Under the lowest proposed rate, Sorenson, which uses 500,000 minutes within the first few days of each month, would receive $3.86 per minute.

Michael Postma, the district operations manager for Sorenson VRS of Omaha, said it costs his company just over $5 per minute to operate. The extra dollar Sorenson is reimbursed is used for services like installation, technology sup-port, and research and development.
According to the National Exchange Carrier Association, companies have estimated an average operating cost of $5.28 per minute for the next year.

But the association says some carriers' projected increases in operation costs seem excessive, and has thus proposed the cuts in reimbursement rates.

If the new rates are put in place, smaller companies, whose rate cuts won't be as severe, either won't be able to accommodate the increased demand or would be faced with the same ruinous rates as they grew larger, said Kathy Rapp, the manager for Sorenson's Des Moines location.
About 115,700 people in Iowa, 3.9 percent of the population, have some form of hearing disability, according to 2008 numbers from the Employment and Disability Institute at Cornell University.

And while Sorenson doesn't track how many people in Iowa use its services, Rapp and Miksell said most deaf Io-wans who know American Sign Language and have an Internet connection use VRS.

In the proposal Sorenson submitted to the FCC, the company proposed reimbursement rates that gradually decrease over the next five years.

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