Sprint Nextel has completed work on its network that allows the company to prioritize telecommunications relay service (TRS) for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities. The development allows the company to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) program that establishes and commits carriers to tiers of “must recover” services under emergency circumstances.
Prior to the Nextel merger, Sprint had provided TRS on a voluntary basis for about 15 years, but its “final milestone” for TSP now offers a network of enhanced call centers geographically disbursed throughout the United States. The FCC’s TSP program – which dates back to 1988 – establishes a priority status for critical circuits communicating with multiple terminating points; if outages occur, carriers in essence offer a guarantee of restoration on these circuits following specific TSP guidelines, essentially making sure services to certain user groups are restored under emergency conditions (Telecom Policy Report, Feb. 23).
The TSP program was established to prioritize restoration when telecom companies are typically overburdened with service requests, such as after natural disaster, but the concept has taken on added significance due to national homeland security concerns.
The special TSP codes for TRS were implemented on the Sprint Nextel backbone, long-haul wireline network, and they will be retained by the recently combined companies even after Sprint’s local exchange carrier (LEC) landline assets are divested as anticipated next year.
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