FCC wins disability rate challenge

A federal appeals court judge is siding with the Federal Communications Commission over a challenge to some of the ways that it pays companies for helping deaf people talk on the phone.

A three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against Sorenson Communications in the case decided over its service that allows people who are deaf or have hearing disabilities to call others via video, similar to popular services like Skype or Apple’s FaceTime. The deaf person communicates with an American Sign Language interpreter who speaks with the person on the other end of the line. Like all providers of the service, Sorenson Communications is paid through an FCC fund at a pre-established rate. That rate is supposed to cover the cost of the video relay service, but has actually been helping to pad the profits of companies like Sorenson. As a result, the FCC has been trying to lower the rate, and most recently did so in 2013. The communications company said the new rates were too low to keep funding services it operated under the old method, but Judge Douglas Ginsburg, writing on behalf of the court, tossed out that argument.