Verizon seeks FCC permission to offer WiFi calling

Even as it granted AT&T's request for a temporary waiver of its Tele Typewriter (TTY) requirements for Wi-Fi calling, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), earlier this month, invited ''requests from similarly situated providers seeking a similar waiver of the TTY requirements''.

The FCC added, ''comparable waivers may be granted to other similarly situated applicants that meet the necessary criteria for waiver relief and commit to complying with the conditions stated herein''.

The largest US wireless carrier, Verizon Communications, has responded by requesting the FCC to grant it a waiver from TTY requirements, in order to help it offer Wi-Fi calling services on its network, under the same terms and conditions as applicable to AT&T.

Taking a potshot at AT&T, Verizon asserted that ''neither the existing rules nor the AT&T Waiver Order require such a waiver'', adding that it was doing so only ''out of an abundance of caution''. 

AT&T had leveled allegations against T-Mobile and Sprint of violating FCC regulations, when it complained to the regulator earlier this year about non-conformance of their Wi-Fi calling services to the FCC's TTY requirements.

It was AT&T that had claimed that the two carriers were in violation of federal regulations by introducing Wi-Fi calling without a formal waiver of TTY requirements from the regulator.

For the benefit of the lay readers,  TTY, or Tele Typewriter, an accessibility feature allows the audibly-challenged to communicate over a regular phone call by typing their message on the phone keyboard and have that message relayed through to the caller at the other end of the line in real time.

According to commentators, if regulators give the go-ahead, it should come as no surprise if the first crop of iOS 9 iPhone users got the offering quickly, since AT&T, which has a marketing deal with Apple for the new iPhones, contacted the FCC on 6 October and started rolling it out to customers on 8 October.

AT&T and Verizon had dragged their feet over adding WiFi calling as procedural, rather than technical.

The service is already offered by Sprint and T-Mobile but they were apparently doing so in violation of federal law. The FCC requires all voice-call technology to support text-to-speech hardware for hard-of-hearing, which WiFi calling cannot. therefore implementing it required a special waiver.