STATEMENT
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
Re: IP-Enabled Services; Implementation of Sections 255 and 251 (a)(2) of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as Enacted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996:  
Access to Telecommunications Service, Telecommunications Equipment and Customer 
Premises Equipment by Persons with Disabilities; Telecommunications Relay Services 
and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities, The 
Use of N11 Codes and Other Abbreviated Dialing Arrangements, WC Docket No. 04-36, 
WT Docket No. 96-198,  CG Docket No. 03-123, CC Docket No. 92-105 - Report and 
Order
The fundamental mission of government is to help those who can’t help 
themselves in the absence of a private sector solution.  Today we do just that.  Our action 
helps Americans with disabilities access communications services and equipment needed 
to improve the quality of their lives, or perhaps to save their lives.  
Today, we appropriately extend Section 255 obligations of accessibility for 
individuals with disabilities to providers of interconnected VoIP services and 
manufacturers of specialized interconnected VoIP equipment and CPE. Similarly, we 
require providers of interconnected VoIP services to provide Telecommunications Relay 
Services (TRS) and 711 abbreviated dialing for TRS access, as well as to contribute to 
the Interstate TRS Fund.  These actions are consistent with the letter and spirit of 
Sections 225 and 255.  
The Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Martin and with the able 
assistance of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, has consistently and 
diligently worked to carry out the directives of the Communications Act that the hearing 
and speech impaired community have available “functionally equivalent” 
communications services.  Because VoIP services are rapidly becoming a substitute for 
traditional phone service in the marketplace, it is imperative that we extend accessibility 
obligations to those services.  Also, today’s action is consistent with previous 
Commission decisions to assure that the ever-increasing number of VoIP service 
customers have the same protections, accessibility and features as traditional telephone 
service, such as emergency 911calling capabilities, universal service contribution 
obligations, and customer proprietary network information protections.
I wholeheartedly support this effort to improve the availability and choices of 
services that allow the hearing and speech impaired community to obtain “functionally 
equivalent” communications services.