Matthew Daneman

@mdaneman

One of only two providers of a service that lets the deaf and hard of hearing talk with the hearing community on the phone has shut down.

California-based Purple Communications shuttered its IP Relay offering on Friday. In a video blog, Diana Herron, Purple's senior director of operations, said due to FCC reimbursement issues, "We have no expectation that our company will be paid for services rendered in the future, and can no longer afford to offer the service."

IP Relay is somewhat akin to an Internet-based version of TTY, where a TTY user would type to a Telecommunications Relay Service center, and a person there would call the other party on the phone. With IP Relay, the person with a hearing or speech disability would contact the Relay Service on a computer or web-enabled device.

IP Relay "is an important method of telecommunications access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals whose preferred mode of communication is oral or written English rather than American Sign Language," said Bernard R. Hurwitz, executive assistant to the president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology and Northeast Region representative to the board of TDI, an advocacy group focused on equal access issues in telecommunications for people with hearing or speech impediments.

While texting and video chat programs like FaceTime have been a boon to the deaf and hard of hearing community, likely reducing the reliance on text relay services like IP Relay, Hurwitz said, "It is not a panacea for those who rely more on American Sign Language than English to communicate."

Telecommunications giant Sprint is left as the sole remaining IP Relay provider with Purple out. Spokeswoman Marci Verburgge Rhind said Sprint was able to work out terms with the FCC last week that would let it to continue offering IP Relay services.

"This was great news for us, our current Relay customers and gave Purple customers another service provider alternative after quickly exiting the business last week," she said in an email. "We knew how important it was that we remain in this business — the outpouring of support we've received from the deaf community and the deaf and blind community asking that we stay is a testament to how critical this service is to many.

Utah's Sorenson Communications Inc. ended its IP Relay service in 2013, citing FCC reimbursement rates that were too low.

FCC issues are at the heart of the Purple move. The federal regulator said in May it was fining Purple $12 million for improperly billing the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, a pool of public money used to support communications access for people with hearing and speech disabilities. According to the FCC, Telecommunications Relay Service providers are supposed to verify the names and addresses of users, but claimed Purple billed the fund for millions of dollars for services to customers with made-up names.

Purple denied the FCC allegations. In a statement earlier this year, the company said its verification system "dramatically exceeded what the FCC's rules required and its billings to the TRS Fund were appropriate." Purple added that was following FCC rules by allowing users immediate and unscreened access, and that many of the purportedly fake names were user or screen names belonging to legitimate Relay Service users.

Purple will continue its video relay service, which lets people use the camera on their computers to contact a Telecommunications Relay Service Center and then use sign language to communicate with a person there who then relays the message to another person on the phone.

Hurwitz said there's not one default technology that dominates in telecommunications access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals: "Rather, there is a panoply of options that include video relay, text relay, captioned telephone service, etc. TTYs, though far diminished in number, are still out there, particularly in rural areas without internet access. Consumers select the option that best fits their needs.

"I think the (Federal Communications Commission) is working to ensure that this critical niche remains filled," he said. "And I hope that in the not-too-distant future we will see a melding of all of these access technologies into a universal platform that allows consumers to choose from among video, text and voice options."

Sprint's Verburgge Rhind said that because of the increased traffic due to Purple ending its service, people registering at mysprintrelay.com for its IP Relay service "are experiencing longer than normal wait times."

"I assure you we are ramping up as quickly as possible to try and take on this quick influx in traffic," she said in an email. "We know many consumers need and depend on this service and we look forward to serving them."

MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/mdaneman