FCC Revises 5-Year IP CTS Compensation Plan

The FCC adopted a revised five-year compensation plan for IP-captioned telephone service supported by the telecom relay service (see 2406180063). In an order Wednesday in docket 03-123, the commission established separate compensation formulas for IP CTS supported by communications assistants (CA) and automatic speech recognition-only. The compensation rate for CA-assisted service will be $1.35 per minute effective immediately through June 30. ASR-only service will transition to a cost-based rate, "allowing providers time to adapt their operations," the order said. The rate for this service will be $1.17 per minute and decrease by about 10% to $1.05 in 2025-26 and to 95 cents in 2026-27. Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington concurred in part with the order. The FCC "should be operating consistent with" the trend of technological innovation, Carr said in a statement. "While my specific suggestions did not make it into the final decision today, I appreciate that my colleagues have included changes that can help incentivize continued, long-term investment in ASR technologies."