ClearCaptions Asks Commissioner Aides for IP-CTS Freeze

ClearCaptions CEO Michael Strecker and others from the company asked for a freeze of IP captioned telephone service rates through June 30, 2023, speaking with aides to all FCC commissioners except Brendan Carr. Because ClearCaptions was the only provider to implement automatic speech recognition-only IP CTS “at scale for a portion of 2021, and pandemic volume fluctuations and inflation make it difficult to project costs, the Commission does not have sufficient stable cost information to set new IP CTS rates,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 13-24. The company urged the FCC to “maintain a technology-neutral reimbursement rate” and “reconsider whether allowable IP CTS costs should include the manufacturing, installation, and support costs for custom-built hardware that delivers captions to seniors who as a group face many barriers to using IP CTS on a smartphone app.”