GoAmerica Acquires Verizon’s Video / TTY Relay Services
August 2, 2007
IP-Relay will soon have a new owner.
GoAmerica recently announced that it will be acquiring Verizon’s Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS) division. This division includes Verizon’s TTY relay services, IP-based (via the Internet) relay services, and video relay services.
At $50 million cash and up to an additional $8 million in contingent cash consideration, this acquisition isn’t exactly chump change. Didn’t know GoAmerica has this kind of money! But revenues just for these services was approximately $67 million for 2006 (with no word on expenditures / profit), so this may be a good move.
I’ve been using IP-Relay nearly ever since it was created. So, I’m curious if the change in ownership will enhance the services provided through IP-Relay even more.
Just blogged on DeafDC about registering your personal relay number with DoNotCall.gov. Go check it out or register your phone number(s)!
New IP-Relay Feature
June 1, 2007
Just got an email from IP-Relay touting a new feature on its My IP-Relay service: personalized greetings.
First, some background if you don’t know what the My IP-Relay Number service is. You can sign up and get your own free phone number with the same area code as the state you want it to be located in. You’d have to link it (again via IP-Relay’s webpage) to one or more of your AIM instant messaging accounts, plus one of your VRS numbers. You then give out your My IP-Relay phone number to hearing callers. When they call, there’s no need for the hearing callers to give the relay agent a second phone number for your home or work. Rather, the relay agent will connect the callers directly to you via your AIM account or VRS number. If you’re unavailable, the caller can leave a message which IP-Relay then sends to you via email. Easy to give this number out to pizza delivery services, put onto your resume, etc etc – no need to explain that they need to call one number first, and give the agent the second number. Very handy. (And I should note that at least one other VRS service provider also provides this service as well.)
Now, IP-Relay has improved on the My IP-Relay number service by making it possible for you to set a personalized greeting message. You can now type in your greeting message that you want to be told to hearing callers at the beginning of the call — something like “Hello, this is Proud Geek, I’m unavailable right now but please leave a message” or “Hi, this is the number for Jane Doe, please wait a moment while you are being connected …”
If you already have a My IP-Relay Number, you can modify your user profile. Otherwise, sign up for a new account.
CSDVRS has Personal 800 Numbers
April 13, 2007
Just got this from someone at CSDVRS:
Hello – this is a great blog!
I just wanted to make sure that you knew that CSDVRS offers a special feature – Personal 800 Numbers.
With other VRS Providers, for a hearing person to call a VP user through VRS, the hearing person must have two “sets” of numbers. First, the number to call the VRS center, and then a second “number” to connect to the VP user (VP Phone Number, IP Address, or Extension Number).
CSDVRS’s Personal 800 Number is unique because each VP user is assigned their own number and the hearing person only needs to know ONE phone number, eliminating the need for a phone number to contact the VRS center.
Personal 800 Numbers are perfect for forms, listing on resumes, and require no instructions and look “familiar” to hearing people.
With Personal 800 Numbers, VRS calls are now truly a 2 way street, instead of deaf people always having to make the VRS call to hearing people.
You can get yours by going to www.csdvrs.com/800 for FREE.
Thanks for your time!
Thanks, Tanya (especially for your praise of my blog)! I just updated the Video Relay Services page with this information.
Adding CADVRS
April 12, 2007
I just added CADVRS to my page listing Video Relay Service providers. CADVRS is being provided through the California Association of the Deaf under contract with CSDVRS. (Geesh, how will we be able to tell the difference between CACVRS, CADVRS, and CSDVRS?) Even though this service is being provided by the California Association of the Deaf, nothing on the CADVRS website limits calls as being only to / from California residents — it seems anyone in the USA (but not internationally) can use this service. Several neat features are also being offered: VCO, call-back, web-cam support via the computer, ASL-to-Spanish translation, and more.
Many thanks to RidorLive for cluing me in to CADVRS!
[Note: I updated the Video Relay Services page on my blog, and NOT the older and not-to-be-updated-anymore article.]
