The FCC recently announced it was thinking of reviewing VRS rates. This is an unexpected move since in 2007, the FCC agreed to “freeze” rates for 3 years and revisit it in 2010. When they made the announcement in 2007, it made it possible for VRS companies to plan their budgets, hiring, staffing, investments in technology because the VRS companies were expecting the rates to stay at the same level until 2010.

Now the FCC is thinking of changing rates before 2010–some may not think it is the right thing to do– some companies have gone public with their concerns about the FCC rates, some companies used other organizations to pressure consumers to pressure the FCC, other companies such as ZVRS have had discussions with the FCC and try to suggest alternative ways to fund the service.

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The way the rates are set is by the number of minutes per month. There are three levels (tiers)-0-50,000 ($6.70), 50,001-500,000 ($6.44), over 500,000 ($6.24). The higher the minute tier, the lower the rate (the rates per minute are in parenthesis.
The rates are lower for the larger tiers because the larger companies are more efficient, they can allocate and balance resources better than the smaller companies. ZVRS has approached the FCC with a concept to add more tiers so that smaller companies like ZVRS can have the benefit of equitable rates and compete on a level playing field with the bigger providers.
The FCC has asked for comments and we will know more in a few weeks about this matter. If, in the meantime, you want to comment to the FCC on this, feel free to do so by clicking this link.