WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week expanded its rules regarding telecommunications relay services to include speech-to-speech services, Spanish language service and quality of service rules.
TRS is a telephone transmission service where a person with hearing difficulties calls a center using a text telephone device. An operator places a voice call to a hearing person and acts as a mediator between the two. In the speech-to-speech context, TRS centers will hire operators with special speech recognition skills to act as a translator between the speech-impaired person and the person they are calling.
TRS centers must provide Spanish translators for those people wishing to make interstate TRS calls by March 1, 2001.
The quality of service rules are designed to improve the speed at which calls are answered and conversations relayed. For example, TRS operators must be able to pass a typing test with a minimum score of 60 words per minute.
The rules also require TRS centers to accommodate interactive menus and other recorded messages by requiring the operators to alert the user to the presence of a recorded message through a hot key on the operating terminal and to record the recorded messages.
