Video Relay Service - VRS Deployment Worldwide - United States - Issues in U.S. VRS Administration

Issues in U.S. VRS Administration

• Numbering standardization competing VRS providers have incompatible numbering schemes.
• Interconnection between the IP-based videophone network and the worldwide telephone network.
• VRS providers encounter difficulties routing 911 calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). When a VRS user dials 911, the call is first delivered to the VRS, as with any other call placed. However, when the VRS interpreter attempts to connect with the user's local PSAP, the call is instead connected to the PSAP that services the VRS provider's location. Additionally, the information displayed at the PSAP will be that of the VRS provider, not the VRS user.
  In order to route emergency calls and accurate information to the appropriate PSAP, VRS providers can send the call information to a national call-routing service. This service determines the appropriate local PSAP for the VRS user and delivers the VRS interpreter's 911 call accordingly. The VRS user can then communicate with the PSAP dispatcher via the VRS interpreter, in order to receive the appropriate emergency services. The European Union improves access to emergency services 112 for people with disabilities. The REACH112 project intends to implement a 12-month pilot in Sweden, UK, The Netherlands, France and Spain allowing disabled users to communicate at a distance with each other and directly with the emergency services.
• The VRS industry is under investigation by the FCC, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FBI for alleged fraudulent activities meant to "manufacture" minutes. The FBI raided the offices of several VRS providers in June 2009 and consequently issued warrants and indictments for fraud. The FCC OIG office presented at the RID conference in Philadelphia alerting the field to the problem and urging all those involved to no longer tolerate and such activity by reporting it to the FCC.
• On November 19, 2009, the FBI unsealed indictments against 26 people charged with engaging in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program. Arrests were made the same day by FBI agents and Postal Inspectors in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Maryland and were the result of a joint FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and FCC Office of Inspector General (FCC-OIG) investigation into a nationwide scheme to defraud the FCC's VRS program.
  The indictments charged the owners, employees and contractors of several companies with engaging in a scheme to defraud the FCC's VRS program:
  • Viable Communications Inc., of Rockville, Maryland
  • Master Communications LLC, of Las Vegas
  • KL Communications LLC, of Phoenix
  • Mascom LLC of Austin, Texas
  • Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Interpreting Services Inc. (DHIS), of New York and New Jersey
  • Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf
  • Tamara Frankel, Robert Rubeck, Benjamin Pena of Arizona