Mobile video relay service (VRS) apps offered by...

Mobile video relay service (VRS) apps offered by major equipment makers still need improvement and often aren’t interoperable, the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University said in a letter filed at the FCC. “We note that mobile interoperability, while greatly improved since our 2012 tests, still is in no way comparable to the level of voice interoperability seen in the mainstream,” wrote Christian Vogler, one of the researchers (http://bit.ly/1btO2AX). “Also, there still exists no single VRS-provided app that can successfully interoperate with every other provider for both outgoing and incoming calls; in fact, the provider that tops the rankings for outgoing calls is different from the one that tops the rankings for incoming calls.” The program tested mobile interoperability and battery life using apps from six VRS providers: Sorenson, ZVRS, Purple, Convo, CAAGVRS and Global VRS. “It is still impossible for a consumer to operate only one ten-digit number and be assured that they can connect with everyone else, no matter whether deaf or hearing,” Vogler wrote. “We further note that interoperability across answering machines still is substantially worse than for live point-to-point calls, and essentially unchanged from 2012.” The group reported that VRS applications don’t drain the mobile devices’ batteries “to a significant extent while idle on Wi-Fi. However, on Android devices there’s still some room for further improvement. It is also not yet clear how much battery drain there would be under a cellular data connection with fluctuating signal strength."