Few Oppose FCC Elimination of ASCII Requirement
Disability Belongs, a nonprofit led by people with disabilities, urged the FCC to reach out to all those affected before eliminating a requirement that telecommunications relay services providers support the largely obsolete ASCII transmission format. Other commenters saw little risk from permanently deleting the requirement.
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Commissioners approved an NPRM in June (see 2506260030) and comments were due Friday in docket 03-123. In November, the commission approved conditional waivers for T-Mobile and Hamilton Relay (see 2411250037).
Disability Belongs conceded that ASCII-based text telephone-based communications “are largely viewed as obsolete” but said any transition away from the standard “must prioritize” that people with disabilities have “continued access to critical communication services.” Everyone “should have the tools needed to participate in communicating their needs with government no matter how small the population using such technology may be,” the group said.
Hamilton said TTYs generally use the Baudot coding format and “today almost all TTY conversation is transmitted in Baudot.” Since the ASCII requirement was waived last year, Hamilton “has not had a single request from a TTY-based TRS user to have ASCII made available,” the company said. “Waiving the ASCII requirement has not caused any adverse effects, and eliminating the rule is similarly unlikely to have any adverse effects,” Hamilton said.
The Telecommunications Equipment Distribution Program Association and the National Association of State Relay Administrators jointly supported deleting the requirement. “ASCII equipment is no longer commercially available and ... functioning units have become increasingly difficult to locate,” the groups said. “Incompatibility with modern telephone networks has further diminished usability, leaving very few individuals able to reliably access communication through ASCII.”