InnoCaption, CaptionCall Lobby FCC Staff on IP Captioned Telephone Services

IP captioned telephone service providers InnoCaption and CaptionCall met separately with FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff about rates for IP CTS, said ex parte filings posted Friday in docket 03-123. CaptionCall also met with staff from the Office of Managing Director. InnoCaption asked the FCC to "establish a three-year rate cycle while maintaining a single IP CTS rate" until there's enough data on the impact of automatic speech recognition. CaptionCall asked that research and development costs be treated as compensable "above mandatory minimum standards" to achieve functional equivalence. It also asked that acquiring North American numbering plan phone numbers for IP CTS users be treated as compensable.