(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Federal Communications Commission FCC 24-81
CONCURRING STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR
Re: Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service Compensation; Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities; Misuse of Internet Protocol (IP) Captioned Telephone Service, CG Docket Nos. 22-408, 03-123, and 13-24, Report and Order and Order (July 31, 2024).
Technological innovations are improving the lives of so many Americans, including individuals with hearing loss. One area where we are seeing this trend is in the market for services that enable individuals with hearing loss to communicate with others by reading captions that are generated during telephone calls. Historically, these captioning services required the participation of a third-party person, known as a communications assistant or CA, to generate the captions. But increasingly, providers of captioning services are generating them by using automatic speech recognition or ASR technologies. This trend is a good thing as it drives down the cost of providing the captioning service while breaking down barriers to innovative and new forms of competition.
In my view, the FCC should be operating consistent with this trend towards technological innovation. That does not mean that the FCC should stop supporting the continued use of CAs in the appropriate circumstances. But the FCC should not work against the pro-consumer movement towards greater reliance on technology either. For this reason, I put forward some ideas that I thought would strike a better balance in terms of the incentives the FCC creates today while ensuring that we manage this program in a fiscally responsible manner. 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. And in light of those changes, I will be concurring in today’s decision.