ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)

Human Factors (HF); Telecommunications relay services

DTR/HF-00120

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 13-Sep-2009
• Technical Committee: HF - Human Factors
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 15-Sep-2009
• Completion Date: 14-Sep-2009

Standards Content (Sample)

Technical Report
Human Factors (HF);
Telecommunications relay services

2 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)

Reference
DTR/HF-00120
Keywords
relay, service
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3 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Introduction . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 7
3.1 Definitions . 7
3.2 Abbreviations . 8
4 General . 9
4.1 Background . 9
4.2 Possible relay services . 9
4.3 Relay services in Europe . 9
4.4 Relay services internatio nall y . 10
4.5 Motivations for establishing relay services . 10
4.6 Harmonization of communication systems . 11
4.6.1 The need for harmonization . 11
4.6.2 The European experience . 11
4.6.3 Fragmentation caused by funding methods . 11
4.6.4 Relay services and local harmonization . 12
4.6.5 Global harmonization . 12
4.7 Inclusion of relay service users in the number plan. 12
5 Relay services in Europe . 13
5.1 Austria . 13
5.2 Belgium . 13
5.3 Bulgaria . 13
5.4 Cyprus . 13
5.5 Czech Republic . 13
5.6 Denmark . 13
5.7 Estonia . 13
5.8 Finland . 14
5.9 France . 14
5.10 Germany . 14
5.11 Greece . 15
5.12 Hungary . 15
5.13 Iceland . 15
5.14 Ireland . 15
5.15 Italy . 15
5.16 Latvia . 15
5.17 Lithuania. 16
5.18 Luxembourg . 16
5.19 Malta . 16
5.20 Netherlands. 16
5.21 Norway . 16
5.22 Poland . 16
5.23 Portugal . 16
5.24 Romania . 16
5.25 Serbia and Montenegro . 17
5.26 Slovakia . 17
5.27 Slovenia . 17
5.28 Spain . 17
5.29 Sweden . 17
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4 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
5.30 Switzerland . 18
5.31 United Kingdom . 18
6 Relay service internationally . 19
6.1 General . 19
6.2 Australia . 19
6.3 Canada . 19
6.4 New Zealand . 19
6.5 USA . 19
6.6 Multi-national . 20
7 Service offerings summary for Europe . 20
7.1 Text Relay Service . 20
7.2 Sign Relay Service . 20
7.3 Speech Relay Service . 21
7.4 Captioned Telephony Relay Service . 21
7.5 Text-to-text relay services . 21
8 Quality of Service (QoS) criteria . 21
8.1 General . 21
8.2 Examples of QoS requirements . 22
8.2.1 General . 22
8.2.2 Sweden . 22
8.2.3 USA . 22
8.3 Conclusions . 22
Annex A: Bibliography . 23
History . 24

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5 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF).
Introduction
The present document is intended to set out the background to ES 202 975 [i.5] the standard on Harmonized Relay
Services, to describe the research involved and to provide general information on relay services derived during the
research. Relay services in the sense described in these documents, are communication services that translate between
different modes of communication.
Relay Services are provided mainly to enable people with communications related disabilities to participate on more
equal terms in a society where telephony and electronic communications have become such an important part of life.
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6 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
1 Scope
The present document sets out significant background information to the writing of ES 202 975 [i.5] Harmonized relay
services.
It records the results of researches made during the preparation of the standard.
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• Non-specific reference may be made only to a complete document or a part thereof and only in the following
cases:
- if it is accepted that it will be possible to use all future changes of the referenced document for the
purposes of the referring document;
- for informative references.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of the present document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For non-specific references, the latest edition of the referenced document
(including any amendments) applies.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not essential to the use of the present document but they assist the user with
regard to a particular subject area. For non-specific references, the latest version of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.
[i.1] BT SIN 359: "BT TextDirect™ Service description".
[i.2] EICTA: "Position paper on eInclusion", Brussels, 5 November 2008 .
NOTE: See at http://www.eicta.org/index.php?id=34&id-article=290.
[i.3] ETSI EG 201 013: "Human Factors (HF); Definitions, abbreviations and symbols".
[i.4] ETSI EG 202 320: "Human Factors (HF); Duplex Universal Speech and Text (DUST)
communications".
[i.5] ETSI ES 202 975: "Human Factors (HF); Harmonized relay services".
[i.6] ETSI TR 101 806: "Human Factors (HF); Guidelines for Telecommunication Relay Services for
Text Telephones".
[i.7] IETF RFC 3261: "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)".
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[i.8] IETF RFC 4103: "RTP payload for text conversation".
[i.9] ITU-T Recommendation F.703: "Multimedia conversational services".
[i.10] ITU-T Recommendation H.323: "Packet-based multimedia communications systems".
[i.11] ITU-T Recommendation T.140: "Protocol for multimedia application; Text conversation".
[i.12] ITU-T Recommendation V.18: "Operational and interworking requirements for modems operating
in the text telephone mode".
[i.13] ITU-T Recommendation V.23: "600/1200-baud modem standardized for use in the general
switched telephone network".
[i.14] NFTH: "Nordic guidelines for Telecommunications relay services".
[i.15] TIA-825-A: " A Frequency Shift Keyed Modem for Use on the Public Switched Telephone
Network".
[i.16] FCC 47 CFR § 64.601-606: "TRS Rules. FCC USA, The set of regulations that form the basis of
the relay services in USA. It is amended when new details take effect".
NOTE: See at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/4regs.html.
[i.17] FCC 08-151A1 E911: "Requirements for IP-Enabled Service Providers", June 2008.
NOTE: See at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-08-151A1.pdf
[i.18] ITU-T Recommendation V.21: "300 bits per second duplex modem standardized for use in the
general switched telephone network".
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the terms and definitions given in EG 201 013 [i.3] and the following apply:
automatic relay service: service that enables a conversation between two terminals using different communication
modes by providing the facility of automatic conversion between the two modes in substantially real time
captioned telephony: service that assists a deaf or hard of hearing user in a spoken dialogue by providing text captions
translating one direction of the conversation
NOTE: The service is usually provided via the Internet on a computer associated with the telephone being used.
lip-reading relay service: service that enables lip-readers and voice telephone users to interact by providing conversion
between the two modes of communication in substantially real time N
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator who is a lip-speaker.
operator: person whose prime task is to provide assistance and support to users (also known as an "attendant")
relay service: telecommunications service that enables users of different modes of communication to interact by
providing conversion between the modes of communication
sign relay service: service (often known as a video relay service) that enables sign language users and voice telephone
users to interact by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
speech to speech relay service: telecommunications service that enables speech impaired telephone users and other
users to interact by providing skilled assistance between them
NOTE: This assistance is provided by a specially trained operator.
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text relay service: telecommunications service that enables text telephone users and voice telephone users to interact
by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
text telephone: terminal offering text telephony functions, either as a stand-alone unit or as an addition to a voice
telephone or as an application in a multi-function computer based terminal
text telephony: telecommunications facility offering real time text conversation through telecommunication networks.
Text telephony may be combined with voice telephony
NOTE: See EG 201 013 [i.3].
text to text service: telecommunications service that enables two text telephone users to interact by providing any
necessary protocol conversion between the two text telephones in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided automatically.
total conversation: audiovisual conversation service providing bidirectional symmetric real-time transfer of motion
video, text and voice between users in two or more locations
NOTE: See EG 202 320 [i.4] and ITU-T Recommendation F.703 [i.9].
V.18 protocols: protocols in accordance with ITU-T Recommendation V.18 [i.12]
NOTE: The text telephones supported by V.18 are EDT, 5-bit (or Baudot), DTMF, V.21, V.23, Bell 103 and V.18
based devices.
videophone relay service: service synonymous with sign relay service that enables deaf videophone signers and voice
telephone users to interact by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
DTMF Dual Tone Multi Frequency
EDT European Deaf telephone
EICTA European Information and Communications Technology Association
FCC Federal Communications Commission (USA)
GSM Global System for Mobile communication
HCO Hearing Carry Over
QoS Quality of Service
RNID Royal National Institute for Deaf people
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
SMS Short Message Service
TRS Telecommunication Relay Service
VCO Voice Carry Over
VRS Video Relay Service
NOTE: Referred to as sign relay service in the present document.
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4 General
4.1 Background
A relay service in the sense described in the present document enables users of different modes of communication to
interact by providing conversion between differing modes of communication. The primary motivation is to enable
people with disabilities which influence their capability to use a voice telephone to have communication with voice
telephone users and users of other types of communication than they have themselves. Relay services are commonly
established as government enabled or government mandated services because of the evident economical and social
value in fulfilling policies for the provision of equal opportunities for all in the field of communications.
The present document records the background to and research undertaken during the writing of ES 202 975 [i.5], the
ETSI standard for Harmonized Relay Services. This standard was originally derived from TR 101 806 [i.6], Guidelines
for Telecommunications relay services for text telephones which dealt mainly with text telephones and recommended
very high performance targets based upon the best available in the world. The present document in its turn was largely
based on the Nordic guidelines for Telecommunications relay services [i.14].
The primary aim of the new standard was to update the original technical report in the light of new opportunities in
telecommunications, setting standards for new types of relay service that were not envisioned when the original report
was written.
Secondly it was necessary to take on board the changes in the telecommunications environment. When the report was
first written it was common for a single national operator to provide both the network and the relay service. Nowadays
the network and the service provision are often run by different entities and it therefore became necessary in the
ES 202 975 [i.5] to separate out those provisions such as supplementary services that are primarily network based.
Furthermore, as the purpose of a standard is to set mandatory requirements it was necessary to determine how many of
the performance targets could be achieved in practice and what level of achievement was possible for each of the
performance requirements.
4.2 Possible relay services
The original Technical Report TR 101 806 [i.6] set out detailed requirements for a basic text relay service based upon
PSTN text phones and also for an ISDN videophone based sign relay service. Some reference was also made to
providing textphone capability for Fax to speech conversion services and also for SMS and Paging services.
It was decided to consider new communications services introduced since the original document. The possibility of a
signing service over IP and over mobile telephony was considered as was a lip-reading service and one for the
translation of Fax to speech or text. In addition a service to assist users with impaired speech was investigated as was
Captioned telephony.
4.3 Relay services in Europe
A search was made to find which services are currently available within Europe. Letters requesting information were
sent to those ETSI members representing administrations within Europe asking for contact addresses of relay service
providers within their Countries. They were sent to Administration representatives of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg,
Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Replies were received from the Czech Republic, Finland, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Further letters were sent to members of the European Union of the Deaf. Replies were only been received from Austria,
Italy, Latvia and Serbia. A further attempt was made to seek information from the European members of the World
Federation of the Deaf. This approach showed a little more success and replies were received from Austria, Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Further information was acquired through personal contacts in Italy, Greece, Spain, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden,
Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, USA and Canada.
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The results of these enquiries showed that relay services exist in only a few European countries. Details of these
services are given in clause 5.
4.4 Relay services internationally
Internationally, relay services are found at least in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Some relevant
characteristics of them are described in clause 6. One service was also found that provides service in many countries
over the Internet.
4.5 Motivations for establishing relay services
Relay services can be provided for both economic and social reasons.
Relay services can contribute to better integration of disabled people into society, thereby reducing the overall cost to
society by:
• reducing unemployment;
• reducing the load on health services;
• reducing the need for support actions by colleagues at work;
• reducing the travel time of sign language interpreters and increasing their efficiency;
• reducing the travel time of text transcribers and increasing their efficiency;
• increasing work efficiency;
• reducing the loss of lives and property (by provision of emergency number calling via relay services to 112).
Relay services can contribute to meeting social policy goals to provide equal opportunity to people with communication
disabilities by:
• Giving an opportunity to converse with anybody who has a voice telephone.
• Improving the harmony and efficiency of private life.
• Giving an opportunity to be more efficient and self-sustained at work.
• Providing a basis for equality at work.
• Providing equal access to emergency services in cases of emergency.
A cost/benefit analysis can be performed by evaluating these benefits and comparing them to the cost of providing relay
services.
On the cost side of such evaluation there might be factors such as:
• Setting up, operating, maintaining and renewal of the technical system for the relay service.
• Maintaining the regulatory and financial platform for relay services.
• Education and manning of operators with suitable skills for each type of relay service.
• Informing the public about the availability of the relay services.
• Informing communication providers about the need to include relay service support in current and future
communication systems.
• The cost of extra call routing via the relay service.
There are also costs for provision of suitable terminals to the relay service users that is seen in some countries as part of
a broader social policy to provide equal opportunities in communication both permitting people using the same modes
of communication directly, and for people using differing modes of communication to connect through relay services.
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Costs to be taken into account in terminal provision include:
• The cost of provision, support, maintenance and renewal of terminal equipment.
• The cost of provision of extra communications services, subscriptions, numbers and communication.
• The cost of maintaining interoperability between terminal types and between terminals and relay services.
• The cost of providing information to the public on the availability of accessible terminals and services.
In some countries, terminal provision is included within the provision of relay services, while others provide separate
funding for accessible terminals. Some countries leave users to provide their own terminals. The policy basis for
terminal provision is usually that people with disabilities should be provided with equal opportunities to communication
on equal terms with other people. The concept of terminal provision also includes terminal software to be used in
equipment that the users have acquired through other means.
As the conditions are different for each service arrangement, these factors are not treated in detail in the present
document.
4.6 Harmonization of communication systems
4.6.1 The need for harmonization
People with disabilities, have a need to be able to communicate directly with each other, and do so by mastering some
common mode of communication.
History indicates that there is a great risk that incompatibilities can be created when the communication need is to be
covered by technology based services. Communication systems for people with disabilities are often created as isolated
local initiatives, and are not always interconnected compatibly as is the international voice telephone system.
Thus it may be observed that the manner of relay service provision can be both a harmonizing factor and a fragmenting
factor for telecommunication services for people with disabilities.
4.6.2 The European experience
The different textphone systems in Europe and worldwide are a sad example of the effects of fragmentation. Each
country developed its own national PSTN based real time text communication system without considering the need for
any international communication infrastructure. International standards were created later with the vision that they
could be used for such interconnection, but these standards were only deployed in one or two countries. Generally the
forces to deploy that vision were too weak to make it happen on a Europe-wide basis.
The need to be able to call anybody anywhere and use the media and modes that work for both parties in a call persists,
as does the need for interoperability between solutions for accessible forms of telecommunications in all networks.
4.6.3 Fragmentation caused by funding methods
The financing system for services can have a fragmenting effect as is demonstrated by the provision of sign relay
services (known as Video Relay Service (VRS)) in the USA. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
provided funding for VRS purely based on time based charges. The effect was that it was profitable for VRS providers
to give videophone equipment to the users, provided that they were tied in to using the provider's service. By making it
complicated or impossible to use the terminals for communication with other users and other providers' services, they
optimized the payback of the investment in terminals. The FCC is still struggling to correct this sad negative side effect
of the financing system, with new regulations requiring the possibility to move between VRS providers, and to be able
to call easily between users of different providers.
The latest contribution to this series of efforts to correct mishaps in history is the important notice of proposed
rulemaking "Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and
Speech Disabilities: E911 Requirements for IP-Enabled Service Providers" (FCC 08-151A1 [i.17]), where the FCC
requires VRS and IP text relay providers to provide ordinary phone numbers to the users. It also requires both direct
calling between users by using that number, and calling from voice phones via relay services by using the same number.
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12 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
It requires that emergency calls placed by Internet-based TRS users will be routed directly and automatically to
appropriate emergency services authorities by the Internet-based TRS providers.
4.6.4 Relay services and local harmonization
Appropriate funding can also assist harmonization, Where public funding provides both the relay service and the
terminals it is possible to ensure that all use the same protocols An example of this is Sweden where the relay service
provided by the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency supports access by V.21 textphones and the procurement of
terminals by the county councils specify compatibility with V.21 textphone systems. The procured terminals can then
be used both for communication with other users within the same procurement area, and with the text relay service.
Unfortunately this does not guarantee compatibility with users in other countries.
In the UK the relay service uses V.18 protocols and is compatible with most other systems and terminals except those
using DTMF. Unfortunately terminals are not publicly provided and many users purchase terminals using proprietary
protocols which do not guarantee universal compatibility.
4.6.5 Global harmonization
Since it is a documented need of people with disabilities to communicate with each other as well as with others through
relay services, it is evident that efforts should be made to achieve interoperability globally between all users of
accessible communication services. Relay service provision can play an important role in this, but efforts to publicize a
common base for terminal interoperability are needed, as well as the establishment of gateway services from other
systems to that common base.
EICTA has described a vision for implementing total conversation in an interoperable way based on RFC 3261 SIP [i.7]
for call control, audio and video as commonly used in videophones, and ITU-T Recommendation T.140 [i.11]
transported according to RFC 4103 [i.8] for real-time text. A document entitled "Total conversation from Vision to
Implementation", referred to in their position paper on eInclusion [i.1] also recommends means by which systems
implementing other technical methods of communication should be connected with the common base through gateways,
thus fulfilling the users' needs of global interoperability in communication to give functional equivalence with voice
telephony.
4.7 Inclusion of relay service users in the number plan
The main emphasis of the harmonized standard for relay services [i.5] is on the central task of the relay service to
translate between modes of communication. It is that part of providing functional equivalence in telecommunications to
disabled users that is the goal for the service provision.
Another part of providing functional equivalence in telecommunications is to provide the same method of calling and
being called as that for other telecommunications users, i.e. by dialling one single number from the international
number plan, and being called by an ordinary number with the relay service being automatically invoked.
This manner of "direct" dialling can be contrasted with the typical manner of calling by means of a multi step procedure
where it is necessary to know the number of and make a call to the relay service and then ask to be connected to the
desired destination of the call.
The USA is implementing a direct system for such number plan dialling for IP based Sign relay services and IP text
relay services. The UK has for many years had a system, called TextDirect [i.1] which provides a large part of that
functionality for PSTN textphone usage. In Sweden there have been trials with text, sign and speech relay services with
direct dialling.
One essential application of direct dialling with automatic invocation of a relay services is when calling 112 for
emergency services, and for the ability of the emergency services to call back to the person originating the call,
automatically invoking the appropriate relay service. This aspect is being handled in a project called REACH112,
initiated by the European Commission to be run during years 2009-2011.
The achievable improvement in accessibility provided by such calling systems are obvious. The standard for
harmonized relay services [i.5] includes an informative annex that briefly describes a number of call set up methods,
including that for direct dialling via relay services. However, it was outside the scope of the standard to define a
European standard mechanism for such dialling and routing of calls. The topic should perhaps be revisited in a later
technical network standard.
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5 Relay services in Europe
5.1 Austria
At the time of writing the present document there are no relay services in Austria.
5.2 Belgium
A text relay service exists in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. It is called Teletolk and operates over the
Internet using "chat".
The service is only available from 9 am until 7pm on working days at http://www.teletolk.be/.
For calls to other countries, Teletolk provides an interpretation service into Dutch, French or English.
Teletolk is financed by the Flandrian regional government.
There is no relay service in the Walloon region where French is spoken.
5.3 Bulgaria
At the time of writing the present document there are no relay services in Bulgaria.
One company provides 100 free SMS messages per month to deaf users.
5.4 Cyprus
At the time of writing the present document there are no relay services in Cyprus.
5.5 Czech Republic
A text relay for access by V.21 textphones is available in the Czech Republic, run by Telefonica O2, and funded jointly
by the telecom operators through regulation from the Czech government.
Text users call 800 143 143.
Voice users call 800 142 142.
The service is open 24 hours per day.
There is also a fax relay service available.
5.6 Denmark
Denmark has a text relay service, provided through TDC. available through a web interface and from computers with
V.21 modems and textphone software. The service is available 24 hrs per day.
The service is in transition from being financed by the major telecom operator to a system with the cost more evenly
distributed between the operators.
A trial video relay service TegnKom is running as a project with government funding. It is available Monday-Friday
8.30 - 15.00.
5.7 Estonia
At the time of writing the present document there are no relay services in Estonia.
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14 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
5.8 Finland
There is a text relay service in Finland which operates 24 hours/day.
It operates through 5 telephone numbers, each offering a different service:
- 0100 2288 - Standard calls in Finland
- 0100 2299 - Cell phone calls and calls to Sweden
- 0600 92288 - Information service (subject to a charge)
- International calls
- 0700 98695 - Maintenance service (subject to a charge)
- 0800 30 2288 - Phone calls to toll free service numbers

0600 92288 also operates as a so called express line when all of the operator's lines are busy. It can be used to request
one phone call through this line. The call will be connected by the first available operator.
The services are financed from government related sources.
There is also a trial of sign relay services.
5.9 France
A couple of sign and text relay services are starting up in France in expectation of government related funding. They are
both based on SIP videophone and total conversation protocols.
A remote sign language interpreting service is available regionally through information kiosks under the Websourd
initiative.
The services are funded through various project financing, and expect to move to some form of government funding or
government coordinated funding during 2009.
5.10 Germany
A German company Tess offers two relay services, TeScript and TeSign.
The relay services are available 7 days/week from 08.00 to 23.00.
TeScript offers a text relay service for textphones over the PSTN to the EDT standard. To use this service:
• A textphone user dials 01805-83 77 83.
• A telephone user dials 01805-83 77 88.
A web based service is also available via TeScript to PCs equipped with special software for internet based real-time
text.
TeSign offers a Web based signing service using a computer with downloaded software.
The connection is established ov
...