[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 80 (Thursday, April 27, 2017)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 19322-19325]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-08488]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 64

[CG Docket Nos. 10-51 and 03-123; DA 17-76]


Structure and Practices of the Video Relay Services Program

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission's Consumer and Governmental 
Affairs Bureau (Bureau or CGB), pursuant to delegated authority, adopts 
amendments to the Commission's telecommunications relay services (TRS) 
rules to incorporate technical standards to improve the 
interoperability and portability of services, equipment, and software 
used for video relay services (VRS) to enhance functional equivalence 
and VRS availability for consumers, ease of compliance by providers, 
and overall efficiency in the operation of VRS.

DATES: Effective Date: This rule is effective as of May 30, 2017. The 
incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in the rules 
is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of May 30, 2017.
    Compliance Dates: The compliance date for the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile is August 25, 2017. The compliance date for 
the Relay User Equipment (RUE) Profile is April 27, 2018. The 
compliance date for contact lists and speed dial lists is October 24, 
2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bob Aldrich, Consumer and Governmental 
Affairs Bureau (202) 418-0996, email [email protected], or Eliot 
Greenwald, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, (202) 418-2235, 
email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of Structure and Practices 
of the Video Relay Service Program; Telecommunications Relay Services 
and

[[Page 19323]]

Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech 
Disabilities, Report and Order, document DA 17-76, adopted on January 
17, 2017, and released on January 17, 2017, in CG Docket Nos. 10-51 and 
03-123. The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, DA 17-76, is 
published elsewhere in this issue. The full text of document DA 17-76 
will be available for public inspection and copying via ECFS, and 
during regular business hours at the FCC Reference Information Center, 
Portals II, 445 12th Street SW., Room CY-A257, Washington, DC 20554. To 
request materials in accessible formats for people with disabilities 
(Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), send an email 
to [email protected] or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau 
at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (844) 432-2272 (videophone), or (202) 418-
0432 (TTY).

Incorporation by Reference

    The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) requires that agencies 
must discuss in the preamble of a final rule ways that the materials 
the agency is incorporating by reference are reasonably available to 
interested parties. In addition, the preamble of the final rule must 
summarize the material. The US VRS Provider Profile TWG-6-1, the US 
Video Relay Service (VRS) Provider Interoperability Profile, Version 
15, (2015) (VRS Provider Interoperability Profile), provides technical 
specifications for the interface between VRS providers and the 
interface between a VRS provider and the TRS Numbering Directory. The 
document is available from the Federal Communications Commission, 445 
12th Street SW., Washington, DC 20554, (202) 418-0270, https://www.fcc.gov/files/sip-forum-vrs-us-providers-profile-twg-6-1. The 
Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment, draft-vrs-rue-
dispatch-00 (2016) (RUE Profile), provides technical specifications 
that define a standard interface between a relay user's equipment and 
the services offered by relay service providers. The document is 
available from IETF Secretariat, 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538, 
510-492-4080, https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-vrs-rue-dispatch. 
Request for Comments (RFC) 6351, xCard: vCard XML Representation (2011) 
(xCard XML Format), specifies a standard data interchange format for 
exporting and importing user personal contacts lists (i.e., address 
books) and user speed dial lists. The document is available from IETF 
Secretariat, 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538, 510-492-4080, 
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6351. In addition, all of the above 
documents are available for inspection at the Federal Communications 
Commission, 445 12th Street SW., Reference Information Center, Room 
CYA257, Washington, DC 20554, (202) 418-0270.

Congressional Review Act

    The Commission will send a copy of document DA 17-76 to Congress 
and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional 
Review Act, see 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A).

Final Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis

    Document DA 17-76 does not contain any new or modified information 
collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
Public Law 104-13. In addition, therefore, it does not contain any new 
or modified information collection burden for small business concerns 
with fewer than 25 employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork 
Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4).

Synopsis

    1. In document DA 17-76, the Bureau pursuant to delegated authority 
provided by the Commission in the Structure and Practices of the Video 
Relay Service Program, et al., Report and Order, published at 78 FR 
40582, July 5, 2013 (2013 VRS Reform Order), amends the Commission's 
telecommunication relay service (TRS) rules to incorporate by reference 
certain technical standards for the interoperability and portability of 
services, equipment, and software used for video relay service (VRS). 
In August 2015, the VRS Task Group of the Session Initiation Protocol 
(SIP) Forum completed a technical standard addressing interoperability 
between VRS providers, entitled the US VRS Provider Interoperability 
Profile (VRS Provider Interoperability Profile). Subsequently, the VRS 
providers formed another group, the Relay User Equipment Forum (RUE 
Forum), which published a second technical standard addressing 
interoperability between a VRS provider and user equipment and 
software, entitled the Interoperability Profile for RUE Profile.

VRS Provider Interoperability Profile

    2. The VRS Provider Interoperability Profile provides technical 
specifications for the interface between two VRS providers, as well as 
the interface between a VRS provider and the TRS Numbering Directory. 
The TRS Numbering Directory is a database that enables the routing of 
VRS and point-to-point video calls that originate and terminate with 
different VRS providers. The Bureau concludes that the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile will advance the Commission's goals of 
ensuring interoperability and portability and will ``advance the 
statutory functional equivalency mandate [and] improve the availability 
of TRS, in the most efficient manner,'' in accordance with the 2013 VRS 
Reform Order. Specifically, this standard will provide a common 
framework for provider compliance and specific criteria for assessing 
such compliance and will thereby increase the certainty that all VRS 
users can place and receive calls through any VRS provider and make 
point-to-point calls to all other VRS users, irrespective of the 
default provider of the parties to the call, and without the caller 
having to change the VRS access technology used to make such calls. The 
Bureau therefore adopts the proposal to incorporate the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile by reference.

RUE Profile

    3. The RUE Profile provides technical specifications that define a 
standard interface between a relay user's equipment and the services 
offered by relay service providers. The RUE Profile thus addresses a 
number of technical issues not governed by the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile. By specifying a basic interface that is 
usable with any provider, so that a user can freely access any provider 
and switch to a different default provider, without the need to change 
equipment or software and without experiencing any inconvenience or 
disruption of communications functions, the RUE Profile appears to 
advance the goal of full functional equivalence, potentially allowing 
VRS consumers the same degree of equipment portability that wireline 
voice communications users have enjoyed for decades. Although the 
Consumer Groups support the incorporation by reference of the RUE 
Profile in the VRS interoperability rule, VRS providers claim that the 
purpose of the RUE Profile, as developed, is limited to defining an 
interface between user equipment utilizing the VRS access technology 
reference platform, now known as the Accessible Communications for 
Everyone (ACE) Application, or ``ACE App,'' and VRS providers' 
networks. They contend that a rule requiring all provider-distributed 
VRS user hardware and software to comply with the RUE Profile would 
impose major costs and burdens on VRS providers.

[[Page 19324]]

    4. In document DA 17-76, the Bureau incorporates the RUE Profile by 
reference into the interoperability rule, but on a limited basis that 
preserves providers' flexibility to continue offering user equipment 
and software that does not conform to the RUE Profile in all respects, 
pending further determinations in this proceeding. The Bureau 
recognizes the concerns raised by the providers that immediate 
application of the RUE Profile as a whole to all user equipment and 
software may not be feasible without resulting in significant 
disruption of existing user arrangements. Accordingly, the rule the 
Bureau adopts requires VRS providers to comply with the RUE Profile 
only for purposes of ensuring provider interoperability with the ACE 
App. The Bureau defers to the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking the 
question of to what extent, and on what timetable, the RUE Profile 
should be more broadly applied to existing and prospective access 
technology offered by providers.
    5. The Commission previously amended its rules to require VRS 
providers to ``ensure that their VRS access technologies and their 
video communications service platforms are interoperable with the [ACE 
App].'' To ensure that the ACE App interoperability requirement is 
enforceable, the Bureau adopts a rule that incorporates the RUE Profile 
by reference into the existing rule requiring interoperability between 
provider services and the ACE App. As the Bureau expects that the ACE 
App will be released in the near future in a version suitable for 
interoperability testing, the Bureau concludes that it is reasonable to 
allow one year for VRS providers to complete software development, 
testing, and deployment to ensure that their networks are interoperable 
with the ACE App.

Contact Lists and Speed Dial Lists

    6. In the 2013 VRS Reform Order, the Commission mandated that 
standards for the transfer of users' contact and speed dial lists be 
broadly applicable to all VRS access technologies. The RUE Profile 
specifies such a standard data interchange format, RFC 6351, the xCard 
XML Format.
    7. Accordingly, the Bureau amends the rules to incorporate into the 
existing interoperability and portability rules the xCard specification 
referenced in the RUE Profile.

Updating the Standards

    8. The Bureau adopts the following procedure for incorporating 
amendments or changes to the VRS Provider Interoperability Profile and 
the RUE Profile into the Commission's rules in a timely and efficient 
manner. Under this procedure, CGB will make the updated standard 
available to the public online and issue a public notice seeking 
comment on such modifications, followed by an order incorporating into 
the VRS rules amendments or changes by reference if justified based on 
the resulting record. When such revised standards are completed and 
accepted by the Bureau, a second public notice will be issued 
containing information on how to access the modified standards and 
establishing an implementation schedule.

Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

    9. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as 
amended (RFA), the Bureau incorporated an Initial Regulatory 
Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) into Structure and Practices of the Video 
Relay Service Program; Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-
Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities, 
Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, published at 81 FR 57851, August 
24, 2016 (August FNPRM). The Commission sought written public comment 
on the proposals in the August FNPRM, including comment on the IRFA. No 
comments were received on the IRFA.

Need for, and Objectives of, the Proposed Rules

    10. In document DA 17-76, the TRS rules are amended to incorporate 
by reference the technical standards for interoperability and 
portability of VRS services and equipment developed by the SIP Forum's 
VRS Task Group and a successor group, the RUE Forum.
    11. The VRS Provider Interoperability Profile provides technical 
specifications for the interface between two VRS providers, as well as 
the interface between a VRS provider and the TRS Numbering Directory. 
The Bureau concludes that incorporation of the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile will advance the Commission's goals of 
ensuring interoperability and portability, as required by the 2013 VRS 
Reform Order, by providing a common framework for interoperability 
compliance and specific criteria for assessing such compliance.
    12. The RUE Profile specifies a technical standard for the 
interface between a provider and user software. Because the Commission 
mandated that standards for the transfer of users' contact and speed 
dial lists be broadly applicable to all VRS access technologies, the 
Bureau amends the interoperability rule to incorporate by reference the 
xCard specification referenced in the RUE Profile. Further, the Bureau 
incorporates the complete RUE Profile into the requirement that VRS 
providers ``ensure that their VRS access technologies and their video 
communications service platforms are interoperable with the [ACE 
App].''
    13. In addition, document DA 17-76 adopts a process that will 
readily enable revisions to this rule to reflect future amendments or 
changes in these standards by issuing a public notice seeking comment 
on such modifications, followed by an order incorporating into the VRS 
rules amendments or changes by reference if justified based on the 
resulting record, after which a second public notice will be issued 
containing information on how to access the modified standards online 
and establishing an implementation schedule.

Summary of Significant Issues Raised by Public Comments in Response to 
the IRFA

    14. No comments were filed in response to the IRFA.

Listing of Small Entities Impacted

    15. The rules adopted in document DA 17-76 will affect obligations 
of providers of VRS. Affected small entities as defined by industry are 
as follows.
     All Other Telecommunications.
     VRS Providers, which are generally classified within the 
broad category of ``All Other Telecommunications.''

Description of Projected Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance 
Requirements

    16. The rule changes adopted in the document DA 17-76 modify rules 
governing compliance obligations. Specifically, VRS providers must 
modify their networks, e.g., their protocols for routing calls to other 
providers and for enabling users to import contact lists, as necessary 
to conform to the technical standards incorporated into the existing 
TRS interoperability rules.
    17. Steps Taken To Minimize Significant Impact on Small Entities 
and Significant Alternatives Considered
    18. In general, alternatives to final rules are discussed only when 
those rules pose a significant adverse economic impact on small 
entities. In this context, however, the proposed rules generally confer 
benefits. In particular, technical standards for interoperability 
benefit the smaller VRS providers because consumers find the services 
of smaller providers to be more

[[Page 19325]]

attractive when these services are interoperable than when they are not 
interoperable. These benefits outweigh any burdens associated with 
compliance. Moreover, because all of the VRS providers participated in 
the discussions associated with the development of the standards, the 
Bureau believes that these standards are acceptable to all VRS 
providers, including small entities. Further, to minimize any adverse 
impact on VRS providers, the Bureau adopted an alternative that narrows 
the scope of application of the technical standard for the interface 
between provider networks and user equipment and software, so that it 
governs only the interface between a provider's network and user 
equipment that employs designated open-source user software, rather 
than all user equipment and software. Lastly, document DA 17-76 allows 
extended implementation periods to ensure that providers have 
sufficient time to implement the standards.

Ordering Clauses

    Pursuant to sections 1, 2, 4(i), 4(j), 225 and 303(r) of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 
154(j), 225, 303(r), and the authority delegated by the Commission in 
Structure and Practices of the Video Relay Service Program et al., 
Report and Order, published at 78 FR 40582, July 5, 2013, document DA 
17-76 is adopted, and part 64 of the Commission's rules is amended.
    The Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, 
Reference Information Center, shall send a copy of document DA 17-76, 
including the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis to the Chief 
Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 64

    Incorporation by reference, Individuals with disabilities, 
Telecommunications relay services, Video relay services.

Federal Communications Commission.
Karen Peltz Strauss,
Deputy Bureau Chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.
    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal 
Communications Commission amends 47 part 64 as follows:

PART 64--MISCELLANEOUS RULES RELATING TO COMMON CARRIERS

0
1. The authority citation for part 64 is revised to read as follows:

    Authority:  47 U.S.C. 154, 225, 254(k); 403(b)(2)(B), (c), 715, 
Pub. L. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56. Interpret or apply 47 U.S.C. 201, 
218, 222, 225, 226, 227, 228, 254(k), 616, 620, and the Middle Class 
Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, Pub. L. 112-96, unless 
otherwise noted.


0
2. Amend Sec.  64.621 by:
0
a. In paragraph (a)(1), removing the first instance of ``VRS'' and 
adding in its place ``Video Relay Service (VRS)'';
0
b. Revising paragraph (a)(3); and
0
c. Adding paragraphs (b) and (c) to read as follows:


Sec.  64.621   Interoperability and portability.

    (a) * * *
    (3) Beginning no later than April 27, 2018, all VRS providers must 
ensure that their VRS access technologies and their video communication 
service platforms are interoperable with the VRS Access Technology 
Reference Platform, including for point-to-point calls, in accordance 
with the Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment (RUE 
Profile). No VRS provider shall be compensated for minutes of use 
involving their VRS access technologies or video communication service 
platforms that are not interoperable with the VRS Access Technology 
Reference Platform.
* * * * *
    (b) Technical standards for interoperability and portability. (1) 
Beginning no later than August 25, 2017, VRS providers shall ensure 
that their provision of VRS and video communications, including their 
access technology, meets the requirements of the VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile.
    (2) Beginning no later than October 24, 2017, VRS providers shall 
provide a standard xCard export interface to enable users to import 
their lists of contacts in xCard XML format, in accordance with IETF 
RFC 6351.
    (c) Incorporation by reference. The standards required in this 
section are incorporated by reference into this section with the 
approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) 
and 1 CFR part 51. All approved material is available for inspection at 
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street, SW., 
Reference Information Center, Room CY-A257, Washington, DC 20554, (202) 
418-0270, and is available from the sources indicated below. It is also 
available for inspection at the National Archives and Records 
Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this 
material at NARA, call 202-741-6030 or go to http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ibr_locations.htm.
    (1) FCC (on behalf of SIP Forum), 445 12th Street SW., Washington, 
DC 20554, (888) 225-5322 (voice), (844) 432-2275 (videophone), (888) 
835-5322 (TTY).
    (i) VRS US Providers Profile TWG-6.1, the US VRS Provider 
Interoperability Profile, September 23, 2015. https://www.fcc.gov/files/sip-forum-vrs-us-providers-profile-twg-6-1.
    (ii) [Reserved]
    (2) The following standards are available from the Internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF) Secretariat, 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, 
CA 94538, 510-492-4080.
    (i) The Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment, draft-
vrs-rue-dispatch-00, July 20, 2016 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-vrs-rue-dispatch/.
    (ii) Request for Comments (RFC) 6351, xCard: vCard XML 
Representation (August 2011) https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6351.

[FR Doc. 2017-08488 Filed 4-26-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6712-01-P