WASHINGTON-The wireless industry hopes to give the Federal Communications Commission a final report in June on how the deaf community can use text telephones (TTYs) with a digital wireless phone to call 911, said Todd Lantor, director of government relations for the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Current digital phones cause an unacceptable character error rate when used with tone-based TTY. Those in the deaf community who use these voice-tone devices cannot send and receive phone calls through a digital wireless phone because the character error rates for digital technologies range from 3 percent to 16 percent. The deaf community says an error rate of less than 1 percent is necessary, especially when making 911 calls. Analog cellular phones don’t have this problem.
The industry was supposed to have deployed a solution by the beginning of this year, but carriers received waivers when it became apparent there was not a solution that was acceptable to the deaf community.
Lucent Technologies Inc. apparently has developed a software solution, but it is still being tested with all of the various models and the different digital technologies, Lantor said. “All of the industry is looking to see if other solutions are possible … We don’t know whether [the Lucent solution] will be compatible with all phones.”
The pros and cons of the Lucent solution were spelled out in a memorandum sent to members of the Wireless TTY Forum on March 22 and later submitted to the FCC as an ex parte. The memo says the solution developed by Dr. Steven Benno of Lucent and referred to as the “no-gain” solution has been submitted to the Telecommunications Industry Association. It has been further assigned to various TIA subcommittees for testing purposes.
The wireless industry remains hopeful a data solution can be developed for the long-term. The data solution would have the deaf using wireless personal digital assistants to communicate.
Whatever solution is finally implemented needs to be left up to the carrier, the TTY memo said. “We do not want anyone to have the false impression that the end-all, be-all solution(s) have thus far been developed … It is important to keep in mind that the carrier is responsible for the selection and implementation of a solution(s) that will allow TTY users to access 911 over its digital systems,” said the memo written by Lantor and Ed Hall, assistant vice president for technology and network operations for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
PCIA and CTIA co-chair the Wireless TTY Forum.
