Wireless Carriers To Adopt New Real-Time Text Protocol By December 2017 (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The FCC is ready to adopt a proposal that'll bring a new protocol to wireless networks to help people with disabilities communicate. It's called real-time text (RTT) and will be a replacement for the aging teletypewriter devices that let users transmit text conversations over traditional phone lines. According to the FCC's statement, RTT will "allow Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing, speech disabled or deaf-blind to use the same wireless communications devices as their friends, relatives and colleagues, and more seamlessly integrate into tomorrow's communications networks." The big differentiator for RTT over current, commonly-used text-based messaging systems is that RTT messages are sent immediately as they're typed. The RTT technology will let text users communicate with people on voice-based phones and vice versa; it can also work easily in your standard smartphone, eliminating the need for specialized equipment. The proposal calls for RTT to roll out over wireless networks run by "larger carriers" by December of 2017.

Comments

Interesting

[cmorgan503]

I gave up my TDD/TTY a few years ago, when I started using my own cell phone to send texts to family and friends, as well as my boss. I thought I had seen the last of the TDD/TTY when I did so, and now I'm interested in seeing how the new RTT works.

Re:Interesting

[PPH]

I'm curious if we'll see new stand-alone TDD/TTY devices

I'm sure we will. Because that way the manufacturers can rely on FDA regulations to keep the market to themselves and jack up prices.

Like the touch pad speech generating devices used by people with ALS which, in theory, could be replaced by a cheap tablet app. But nope. Can't do that because the moment it becomes an assisitive device, the manufacturer has to jump through FDA approval hoops.

A new protocol to send text

[aglider]

Do they mean something like email, xmpp, SMS, WhatsApp, telegram ...?

Re:A new protocol to send text

[Solandri]

No, those are the equivalent of IRC. You type a line, and it isn't sent until you hit the enter (or send) key.

This is more like the old Unix talk program. Every key you type gets sent as you type it. The recipient can watch the other person type, including correcting mistakes. It doesn't have the "I'll get to it when I have time" nature of SMS, email, etc. where you can just ignore an incoming message and reply to it later. It's more interactive, and real-time - like a phone call. Which is why it's of interest for deaf people. I would've thought the old teletype protocol could've been easily incorporated into to an app, but I guess not (cell phone voice transmissions are sent a different way than data, and this sort of device has to use the voice channel to maintain compatibility with landline units which may be in a location without Internet).

This is an important story

[93 Escort Wagon]

It's so important, I'm hoping it gets posted again soon so it stays fresh in everybody's mind.