§  64.621   Interoperability and portability.

   (a) General obligations of VRS providers. (1) All Video Relay Service
   (VRS) users and hearing point-to-point video users must be able to
   place a VRS or point-to-point video call through any of the VRS
   providers' services, and all VRS providers must be able to receive
   calls from, and make calls to, any VRS or hearing point-to-point video
   user.

   (2) A VRS provider may not take steps that restrict a user's unfettered
   access to another provider's service, such as providing degraded
   service quality to VRS users using VRS equipment or service with
   another provider's service.

   (3) All VRS providers must ensure that their VRS access technologies
   and their video communication service platforms are interoperable with
   the VRS Access Technology Reference Platform, including for
   point-to-point calls. No VRS provider shall be compensated for minutes
   of use involving their VRS access technologies or video communication
   service platforms that are not interoperable with the VRS Access
   Technology Reference Platform.

   (4) All VRS providers must ensure that their VRS access technologies
   and their video communication service platforms are interoperable with
   the Neutral Video Communication Service Platform, including for
   point-to-point calls. No VRS provider shall be compensated for minutes
   of use involving their VRS access technologies or video communication
   service platforms that are not interoperable with the Neutral Video
   Communication Service Platform.

   (b) Technical standards for interoperability and portability. (1)
   Beginning no later than December 20, 2017, VRS providers shall ensure
   that their provision of VRS and video communications, including their
   access technology, meets the requirements of the VRS Provider
   Interoperability Profile.

   (2) Beginning no later than October 24, 2017, VRS providers shall
   provide a standard xCard export interface to enable users to import
   their lists of contacts in xCard XML format, in accordance with IETF
   RFC 6351.

   (c) Incorporation by reference. The standards required in this section
   are incorporated by reference into this section with the approval of
   the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR
   part 51. All approved material is available for inspection at the
   Federal Communications Commission's Reference Information Center,
   located at the address of the FCC's main office indicated in 47 CFR
   0.401(a), Tel: (202) 418-0270, and is available from the sources
   indicated in this paragraph (c). It is also available for inspection at
   the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For
   information on the availability of this material at NARA, call
   202-741-6030 or go to
   http://www.archives.gov/federal__register/code__of__federal__regulation
   s/ibr__locations.htm.

   (1) FCC (on behalf of SIP Forum), located at the address indicated in
   47 CFR 0.401(a), Tel: (888) 225-5322 (voice), (844) 432-2275
   (videophone), (888) 835-5322 (TTY).

   (i) VRS US Providers Profile TWG-6.1, the US VRS Provider
   Interoperability Profile, September 23, 2015.
   https://www.fcc.gov/files/sip-forum-vrs-us-providers-profile-twg-6-1.

   (ii) [Reserved]

   (2) The following standards are available from the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF) Secretariat, 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538,
   510-492-4080.

   (i) The Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment,
   draft-vrs-rue-dispatch-00, July 20, 2016
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-vrs-rue-dispatch/.

   [ 78 FR 40609 , July 5, 2013, as amended at  82 FR 17764 , Apr. 13, 2017;
    82 FR 19325 , Apr. 27, 2017;  82 FR 39683 , Aug. 22, 2017;  85 FR 64407 ,
   Oct. 13, 2020;  86 FR 35633 , July 7, 2021]