Sorenson Communications.
I can say that Sorenson is working on a resolution which leads to my point again, SVRS supports interoperability. I value the VRS industry as it changed so many of our lives and I hope to see this through for all of us! – Bryan Leeper on Aug 30,2014 when discussing his video posted on Facebook in response to Sheri Ann Farinha’s vlog about interoperability being an issue.
Regardless of whether an employee is willing to claim that their statement on a public forum is a representation of the company or not (especially in their employer’s office and in uniform) they are essentially making promises they’re unauthorized to make. It’s up to the general population to determine whether they can hold the company responsible for what Bryan has said.
Here are some official statements made by the Sorenson Communications Counsel to FCC about interoperability.
“Finally, the Commission also must understand that the SIP-standardization process requires provider resources, and after the impending rate cuts, there will be few if any resources left. If the Commission wants to ensure interoperability, it needs to adopt rates that are sufficient to keep providers in business—and that means implementing auctions sooner than contemplated by the June 2013 VRS rate order” John T. Nakahata
Bryan had stated that Sorenson Communications is ahead in technology. With the older technology in place (VP-200) Sorenson Communications has already acknowledged in their letter to FCC that they are not up to par with technology because they have not put forth the effort to make their VP-200’s interoperable with other providers therefore it is because they have been unsuccessful in swapping out all VP-200’s, they expect FCC to pay more to make their older software interoperable with SIP.
By contrast, if the Commission allows providers to invest their resources in the SIP transition rather than H.323 videomail development, it is quite possible that by the end of 2014, Sorenson would be ready to switch to the new SIP standard—which is expected to address point-to-point interoperability, videomail interoperability, contact-list portability, and more. (John T. Nakahata – Letter to FCC)
And yet they are willing to spend more money on making new features available for their clients without trying to force FCC to pay for their expenses. To make matters worse, Sorenson Communications had written this letter in 2013 and in response to this letter, ZVRS had responded saying, ” ZVRS would go a step further and freely share its
technology and implementation with Sorenson in order support this much-needed telephony
equivalency in interoperable video mail systems.” (ZVRS letter to FCC).
“And… Sorenson is asking FCC not to cut rates, so that they can have more money to develop videomail feature. Why didn’t they add videomail feature as one of their 11 new features?”(Deaf World as Eye See It)
The author, Amy Cohen Efron, hit it right on the nose. Why is this such a big issue for Sorenson Communications and yet they are so willing to spend the money on features for their VP technology. What kind of message does this send? Certainly not the one that Bryan is trying to spread in his vlog from his office in his Sorenson uniform.
This is a clear indicator that Sorenson is willing to spend millions of dollars developing products just for retention. This is a blatant disregard for rules set forth by FCC in terms of requiring interoperability among VRS providers.
