The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.
FCC
The FCC issued a Public Notice reminder to states and interstate telecommunications relay services providers of the annual summary of consumer complaints. The annual consumer complaint log summaries covering the 12-month period from June 1, 2015, through May 31, 2016, are due on or before July 1, 2016. They should include at a minimum, the total number of interstate relay calls by type of TRS (i.e., traditional TRS, speech-to-speech (STS), captioned telephone service (CTS), Internet protocol (IP) CTS, IP relay service (IP Relay), and video relay service (VRS)), the number of complaints alleging a violation of the federal TRS mandatory minimum standards, the date of the complaint, the nature of the complaint, the date of its resolution, and an explanation of the resolution. Click here for further details.
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable has amended and broadened the scope and procedure of its investigation of inmate calling service (ICS). While the Department conducts its investigation, it adopted an interim per-minute usage rate cap and interim permitted ancillary service charges and rate caps for those ancillary service charges. Providers of ICS were directed to file interim rate schedules with an effective date of June 20, 2016. In addition, the Department stays its investigation pending resolution of the appeal of the FCC’s ICS Rate Order.
South Carolina
The PSC initiated a proceeding to implement legislation that became effective May 25, 2016. Act 181 requires the interconnected VoIP providers, CMRS (wireless) providers, and prepaid wireless providers collect and remit the Dual Party Relay (DPR) Fund charge. TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 6/13/16. The ORS recommends that those wireless carriers and VoIP providers that do not have a CPCN be required to submit a registration form. ORS also recommends a reduction in the relay charge of $0.25 per exchange access line to $0.06.
