Telecommunications Relay Service Implemented in New York and Massachusetts

Sprint announced last week that it has completed another telecommunications relay service (TRS) in the FCC's Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) Program. Sprint TRS, communications services available for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing or have a speech disability, is comprised of a network of 14 call centers geographically disbursed throughout the United States. Last week, Sprint call centers in Syracuse, N.Y., and Holyoke, Mass., were successfully activated under the TSP Program.

The Sprint TRS network is designed to reroute traffic to other Sprint Relay centers across the country to continue uninterrupted service with minimal customer impact. However, if a national or regional emergency caused service to be disrupted and the New York and Massachusetts centers could not receive or place calls, Sprint's participation in the TSP program means that local exchange carriers would be required to restore service to the New York and Massachusetts centers as rapidly as possible consistent with the priority status assigned to the center.

"As a part of Sprint's dedication to providing a variety of reliable and effective communications services for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, we recognized the urgency to ensure reliable communications during emergency situations," said Mike Ligas, region vice president, Sprint Relay. "Sprint is proud to voluntarily comply with the FCC's TSP program."