The FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on June 28, 2010. As Dr. Z indicated previously, this NOI is a process in which the FCC will collect information regarding rates and how the VRS service is structured before they issue new rates and rules before the 2011 rate period. The NOI has a 30-day comment period and a 15-day reply to comment period.

4 VRS Providers (CSDVRS, Convo, Purple and Snap) have filed a motion with the FCC to extend the comment period from 30 days to 90 days and the reply to comment period from 15 days to 45 days. The NOI is a very detailed and exhaustive process, raising a lot of questions and Dr. Z is in agreement with the VRS providers that 30 days is too short a time to be able to come up with comments to the questions the FCC has raised. 90 days is a reasonable time period for everyone–VRS providers, organizations and consumers to be able to review the questions and comment on them.

We will see how the FCC responds to this motion.

Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a contractor working with CSDVRS on several projects.