§  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) Beginning no later than April 27, 2018, 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, in accordance
   with the Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment (RUE
   Profile). 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 (FCC), 445 12th Street, SW.,
   Reference Information Center, Room CY-A257, Washington, DC 20554, (202)
   418-0270, and is available from the sources indicated below. 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), 445 12th Street SW., Washington, DC
   20554, (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/.

   (ii) Request for Comments (RFC) 6351, xCard: vCard XML Representation
   (August 2011) https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6351.

   [ 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]