UPDATE – 5.11.2010: National Association of the Deaf President Bobbie Scoggins issued a public announcement regarding the NECA-FCC-VRS matter.
SorensonVRS issued a nationwide plea to the Deaf/HoH consumers, asking for their help to convince the Federal Communication Commission not to accept the proposals from the National Exchange Carrier Association, which could doom the future of the video relay service industry. The link from SorensonVRS: http://www.sorensonvrs.com/savevrs.
This is the Public Notice from the NECA to the FCC: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-761A1.pdf (Source: MyVSR Relay Central)
The NECA proposals disappointed a number of video relay services such Purple, Sorenson, ZVRS, etc., and feared that FCC could adopt them by May 14th.
Million of deaf/Hoh people all over the nation use VRS to make calls to hearing people via qualified interpreters at no cost to the deaf/Hoh callers. If the proposals are adopted, the video relay services could be forced out of business gradually and the deaf/Hoh consumers would suffer as result.
Until May 14th, please act now and express your comment ASAP to the FCC by going here:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=wumwi
As a US citizen and a deaf/Hoh consumer, it’s very important to make your concern known to the FCC, otherwise, you may see the end of the VRS industry in a gradual fashion. Don’t use profanity or angry language when you’re commenting to the FCC or it will be ignored and deleted. Emphasize the importance of VRS to the deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers, like you, and how it affects you in a positive way. Good luck.
05/08/2010 at 12:27 PM
Sorenson is lying. They just took hundreds millions of dollars from wall street to pay their owners dividends (profits).
They want more profits since hundreds of millions are not enough. They want to use the deaf community to fill their pockets.
I don’t see any other certified providers (Convo doesn’t count cuz they re not certified) screaming.
We must not be suckers. We must tell Sorenson to stop exploiting us to make themselves even richer.
05/08/2010 at 12:49 PM
Kindly explain how NECA is going to kill the industry by cutting the rates? You have not explained how it’d kill the industry. I keep hearing ‘fear factors’ going around again and again without details on how it’d destroy VRS industry.
05/08/2010 at 1:03 PM
Truth, please provide evidence to support these allegations.
theHolism, the information is from MyVRS Relay Central blog, not from SorensonVRS directly. I had to look into the NECA proposals from MyVRS blog. My suggestion is to take your issue to MyVRS RC blogger. Okay?
05/08/2010 at 2:12 PM
Sorensen had been raking millions of dollars every year. It’s time for them to stop looking at FCC as the cash cow and start earning money at a reasonable rate. No more rip-offs at taxpayers’ expenses!
05/08/2010 at 4:06 PM
I was told that FCC will pay less only to Sorenson. The other small vrs will get more!
05/08/2010 at 6:27 PM
I got an e mail from Sorenson that they are going to get bankrupt. Get real! *eyes rolling*
I don’t appreciate them harassing me via e mails and vps. Now to think of it, this is a violation of the FCC guidelines.
05/08/2010 at 7:54 PM
Basically the VRS industry have been the bastions of a closed deaf society.
It’s high time that we stop feeding these greedy companies that are part of the big deaf industry complex that exist only to cash in on the special communication needs of the deaf communities.
If VRS goes then the walls of the closed deaf society comes down.
05/08/2010 at 11:21 PM
you can view the VLOG about this.. Its NOT TRUE that FCC wants to close VRS, Sorenson just wants more money for their pockets and Proof is on the video, you need to watch it!
05/08/2010 at 11:26 PM
There are some news being surfaced about FCC’s latest proposal to cute the funds rate.
There are so MANY VRS providers who are screaming about it and asking us to support them.
What Sorenson VRS said in their latest blog is full of rubbish. Convo VRS too.
It is not about death of VRS industries. This proposal is designed to remove the greedy fellows who has the same attitudes as John yeh does.
Will cut the funds rate affect the level of quality video? It is the most pathetic statement that I have heard from Sorenson. Convo, too.
There are numerous of video conference softwares that delivery the amazing video quality. For instance, ooVoo. I failed to see why cannot VRS industries delivery the same video quality. I think they are selfish to say this. They are making more money than ooVoo does and video quality is STILL not that good. I am VP 200 user and poor video quality is noticble. Meaning? They already cut some funds to maxium the video quality for us in a pretty long time ago to leave some funds more rooms for something else.
They said it because they need to invest some money for themselves, on their foods, mortgages, and mistresses. Just like what John Yeh did.
They need to face the fact that they have to accept the massive cut that will minus about 50-70 per cent of their bonuses, double salaries, and etc.
I fully support FCC’s latest proposal. If you do support it too. Just dont do anything for VRS providers that ask you to send emails, calls, and etc to FCC to halt this proposal.
Just leave them to rotten and enjoy the show. We will be experiencing the true of VRS when the size of VRS industries minus to 5 from 30.
It’s definitely a cluster headaches for John Yeh.
05/09/2010 at 1:57 AM
It always annoys me, yet amuses me, to see the backlash against Sorenson. Sorenson has done more for the Deaf community than any other VRS company. Sorenson has more Deaf employees than any other VRS companies. Sorenson donates more money to the community than any other VRS company. Sorenson is the only company that provides language mentors, interpreter mentors, and language support for their interpreters, thus raising the skills and helping more interpreters become certified.
The new rates proposed by the FCC will not only affect Sorenson, but every single VRS company. STart with this, the new rate proposes a different amount paid out for different amounts of minutes interpreted. The more minutes a company interprets (VRS calls, etc), the less money the company gets per minute. With the current proposed rate, Sorenson will go bankrupt–the new proposed rate is not realistic, reasonable, nor feasible.
Now, Sorenson has approximately 5 thousand interpreters. They have close to 600 Deaf employees. PLUS they have teachers, mentors, managers, tech support, ETC ETc ETc. If Sorenson goes bankrupt, as they will if the new rate is approved, about 8 thousand people would be out of a job. Now, Deaf people will continue to make calls. There is NO VRS company out there that is capable or able to make up the calls lost if Sorenson goes out of business. Other VRS companies will be overwhelmed and be forced to expand.
If this works out, other companies will expand–ok…but then they will be earning more mintues, and then get paid LESS, then they’llhave to go bankrupt too.
Purple has spoken out against the new proposed rates. ConvoRelay has spoken out, Hamilton has spoken out, and ZVRS has spoken out. It’s not only Sorenson that is concerned. Stop the Sorenson bashing and pay attention to the facts and the truth behind the FCC proposed rates. If these rates go in effect, we will all go back to using TTYs. Do you really want that? Come on!
05/09/2010 at 2:34 AM
Spencer,
I would like to hear more from your end. Cuz let me tell you what I remember for Sorenson. There was a time when Sorenson would make people wait for hours and hours using SVRS because they would NOT allow for interoperability until the FCC forced them to do so. I would like you hear what you have to say about them about them donating to the deaf communiity.
Yes I know they donated some money to Gallaudet to build a building, but they paid for their name to be on the building for pennies on the the dollar. They paid what? 5 million bucks on a 30 million dollar building. You probably do not recall the time when the founders family had a problem with a donation to a medical building in a Utah university, it was similar, paying a small fraction of what the entire building was worth and when they found out the building would not be named after them, they actually requested a refund.
Let’s see what else did they donate to? oh yea, the winter deaf olympics, that was only for one reason only, the fact that it was in their backyard in Salt Lake City, have they donated to any other deaf olympics since then?
Have they hired a bunch of deaf people in higher level positions like other vrs services have? Nope, just one deaf guy, at the vice presidential level and he was the deaf guy that made the recent video and unfortunately, he is allowing them to play him as a puppet. Sorenson puts their hearing people before they put the deaf people and the deaf community and if there were just one company I would love to see be put out of business, its Sorenson! They do not put deaf people first and if you look at their petitions to the FCC in the past years since VRS was formed, you would clearly see that they do not put deaf people first. In my own personal opinion, for them, it is all about the almighty dollar and they will bullshit as much as they can in order to increase the almighty dollar at the deaf person’s expense!!!!
05/09/2010 at 11:20 AM
I know there are a lot of misconceptions out there, but think about it… the VRS rate cut that the FCC is proposeing could have some serious consequences. The money VRS companies earn goes to so many things like new products and services. The way it setup in proposal that biggest companies are paid the least. and smaller companies paid most. If the bigger companies cant survive on the drastically reduced rate, and they close… then the smaller companies become bigger. It might seem like good news to people who don’t like those bigger companies. But take closer look… Those smaller companies then become the bigger companies. when they reach next level, their reimbursement per minute is then reduced. If they then can’t survive on that, then they too are forced close. It chain reaction. Then VRS is gone. If companies survive on that services like new and better VP cant develop because costs have to be cut.
want to question what Sorenson do for deaf? How about all the FREE VP-200 they give out. Some other companies charge for theirs. They equipment is paid for from profits from the those VRS rates per minute that the FCC wants to cut. Those profits also pay interpreter salaries, support staff, people that come fix the equipment, and other operating costs the same as any other business
But this isn’t just isn’t about saving Sorenson, this affects ALL VRS providers! They all work hard to provide best service they possibly can and deserve to be paid fairly.
Read part of the proposal in the Public Notice the FCC issued April 30th:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-761A1.doc
05/09/2010 at 12:38 PM
what about the free vp 200s that they give out? That was what led to the interoperability problem to begin with and while the fcc forced them to open up their vps, its my opinion that they still decrease the quality of the video on purpose if the connecting vps are not both sorenson vps. Besides, I do not believe in free handouts like that, cuz they expect something in return.
Think about it, this VRS thing should be something where jobs are created, deaf people are helped with both jobs and communication access. I totally agree that those involved with VRS should be paid fairly, but there should be no huge profits amounts to be made. There should be a set percentage cap when it comes to profits, that way, it would not be driven by greed like it has in the past.
05/09/2010 at 8:34 PM
As I’ve been saying on other VRS blog sites, there is another issue that needs more attention, which has the potential to affect VRS just as seriously. Under current law, VOIP services are not required to pay into the TRS fund. More people are dropping landline services. You do the math….fewer people paying the surcharge on phone bills translates into a shrinking TRS fund. The HR 3101 and S 3304 bills would correct that, requiring VOIP services to pay into the TRS fund too.
05/09/2010 at 10:02 PM
After reviewing some facts that provided by Jon Ziev, he have provided some sentimental facts that we might never know the behind of this. Thank you, Jon— Sorenson can SURVIVE with new VRS rate. However, they will need to go through some changes, re: reorganization, renewal budget plans, forecast spending, etc.
Based on the source, which I do not know whether if it is true or not–Sorenson is responsible to return approx $50-$75 millions back to FCC after Feb 25th ruling. ZVRS will also be next. Purple have completed and reached into the settlement with FCC.
I am in very confident that FCC will make sure to provide VRS and any service to us. I am certainly sure that some VRS providers will remain in business and to keep their commitments to provide the services.
05/10/2010 at 2:31 PM
After reading Jon’s post, I was impressed that he found a fact about the selling of bonds. Unfortunately, I didn’t see where it proved that Sorenson was wasting money or making absorbent profits. I didn’t see Jon providing any specific information about the costs associated with providing communication services for the Deaf by Sorenson. To calculate profit you need both revenue and costs. With only one fact which has no relevance. He doesn’t have any skin in the game personally. Not sure I would hang my opinion on this comment.
We should cut great services to VRS and deaf-to-deaf calling so we can make a point that executives in all industries make good money? Sink the ship to punish the captains? I could careless about what they make. We all know they make good money. The bottom line question is “Will Deaf be better off with less funding of these services?”
Will Deaf be better off with no improved technology? No. Will they be better off with less interpreters? No. Will they be better off with reduced support services? No. Will they be better off with longer hold times? Will sinking a company like Sorenson improve services? No. It will hurt it to the point where 10s of thousands of deaf people will be waiting in line for service again. I remember 10-15 minute hold times for VRS interpreters.
The comment that Sorenson will survive is not founded on any facts. They however are saying they will be facing bankruptcy at $3.89 in Tier III minutes.
Bankruptcy is a strong word and no one will win if VRS companies are forced to cut to the bone or go out of business. The only thing that will happen is that some people can say, “I’m Sorry, I didn’t understand it could be messed up that bad.” Now we have a crisis. All this to prove a point! Who suffers here? Good people on the bottom of the food chain losing jobs and getting reductions is needed services.
I believe that Deaf need VRS and deaf-to-deaf services to be better, there are still holes that need work.” We need to add more to the rates that are ear marked to improve the technology. There is plenty of money in the TRS fund. Why not use it for the benefit of the Deaf? Until all Deaf are satisfied with what accommodations they have compared to hearing people. Go to the FCC or SorensonVRS website and make your comment to save VRS across the board before it’s too late and all deaf are in a crisis.
05/10/2010 at 2:33 PM
I don’t see any truth or facts in Ziev’s vlog. It’s his opinion and his opinion only. Check the facts and you’ll see that this so called “media scare” is NOT a “media scare.” The threat to VRS companies is real!
05/11/2010 at 5:57 AM
hello i wtch program for vrs aboutfcc i m interested to listen to lecture i understand you qwhat your siutation is required that their job for ther deaf perople need communication with hearing people use their phone with vrs sign language to be copperated thnak you audrey kaminsky
05/11/2010 at 9:09 AM
I an an investor who has had the opportunity to review Sorenson’s finanical statements. I assure you, if the NECA rates are adopted they will not only file for bankruptcy, but they will shut down their service. They will have no choice because the $3.89 rate does not cover their costs. It’s not even close. True, they are a profitable company, but the industry does not survive at those rates. They may have used scare tactics in the past (I don’t know the company long enough to be able to say one way or the other), but this time it is factual. They can withstand lower rates, but not at these levels.
05/11/2010 at 12:08 PM
I know that VRS providers are concerned about the quality of interpreters for the Deaf. Deaf people rely on interpreters to accurately interpret what they are signing to hearing people. VRS has a lot of top of the line interpreters but because they have to hire so many of them, they need more skills for those with less experience. Conversations between all professions like medical, professional, technical, legal family and others need to be clearly communicated. They do job interviews and the like. I was interviewing a Deaf person which required a live interpreter. Meetings like loan interviews, job interviews and other important meetings over the telephone have interpreters involved and can be a gamble depending who you get.
For example; The following is a true story: I had another Deaf person with me for a panel job interview we conducted with a deaf person. The questions were technical in nature. The candidate was struggling to answer the questions. It the middle of the interview my deaf interviewing partner stopped the interview graciously. We then went on a break. When he came back it was with another interpreter. We then went back and started the interview over again with a technical experienced interpreter. This time the candidate did well on the questions I asked him. For the first time I understood the difference an interpreter could make on the lives a Deaf person. There was no indication from anyone during the first interview that there was any problem with the interpreting. Had I been alone, I would just have thought the candidate was unqualified for the position. I learned a powerful lesson on making sure we have the right interpreter for the conversation. As explained to me afterward by my Deaf interviewing partner (his deafness was in a range outside of the interpreters voice, so he could hear most of what she was saying), there are expertises in interpreting. Some know legal signs and some do not, some know technical signs and some do not. Our first interpreter tried the best but did not succeed for our candidate.
The VRS industry is always looking for qualified interpreters and I believe we have some of the best. My understanding from my experience above is that you need someone who knows how to do your conversation who “Knows the sub languages of ASL with more specific to fields”. This can be done in two ways by using teams of interpreters; this raises VRS costs significantly because it takes one or more interpreters to effectively do the conversation for one Deaf person. The FCC should recognize that quality of people’s lives hang on these interpreted conversations. I eventually hired the person in the story above, but without effective interpreting I would have not hired him.
Second, we need interpreter training programs across VRS providers and the industry that improve the expertise of interpreters. Sorenson is investing money into a training institute program, the first of its kind in the world. See http://www.vrsii.com/ for information about what Sorenson is doing. If successful, more interpreters that Deaf people get will be able to effectively communicate to hearing people for them. These programs are not included in the current rate proposal as legitimate cost to my knowledge. They will cost a significant amount of money to run but it’s worth it for Deaf people to have what they need. Don’t cut the VRS $6.24 rate, the money is needed to implement such programs as improving interpreters. Lives depend on it.
05/11/2010 at 3:01 PM
The FCC’s Bureau of Consumer and Governmental Affairs recently issued a statement stating that the FCC supports VRS and that VRS is not threatened by the FCC’s Public Notice proposing rates for VRS. This statement from the FCC has also appeared on numerous websites.
Sorenson Communications is not at all surprised to hear that the FCC supports the mandate in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide functionally equivalent telecommunications for the deaf. But the FCC fails to mention that in addition to “functional equivalent telecommunications for the deaf,” the ADA also requires nationwide access and improvements in technology and efficiency. The FCC is completely incorrect to say that VRS as we know it today is not threatened by its April 30 VRS rate proposal.
Sorenson provides the vast majority of VRS to the deaf community. Sorenson has provided VRS access to more deaf individuals than any other provider and continues to be the frontrunner in providing access and support to deaf individuals who have never before used VRS service. Sorenson developed the first deaf-centric videophone offering the most functionally- equivalent communication service available. And Sorenson has done all of this efficiently, as we continue to develop next generation solutions that the deaf community has been greatly anticipating.
The rates that the FCC is endorsing will drive Sorenson, the leading provider of VRS, into bankruptcy. The FCC’s proposed compensation to Sorenson is $3.89 per minute. Sorenson’s true and audited costs are over $5 per minute. The FCC is incorrect in their assessment of what would happen if its proposal were adopted. Sorenson understands completely the impact the proposed rate would have on its business. It would be disastrous for consumers. If Sorenson is unable to sustain their business at $3.89 per minute, how can the FCC suggest that any other provider would be able to service Sorenson’s users at such a low rate?
Sorenson continues to strongly urge everyone who relies on VRS to communicate to tell the FCC the facts: The FCC’s proposed rate will force Sorenson into bankruptcy and will end VRS as we know it today. The FCC Chairman and Commissioners must be made to understand that any rate proposal that resembles the April 30 Public Notice, will be a death blow to VRS and to the ADA’s mandate to provide functionally equivalent telecommunications service, national access, technology improvements and efficiency for deaf telecommunication.
Michael D. Maddix
Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs
Sorenson Communications, Inc.
05/11/2010 at 3:03 PM
Vahallian–
Just because Sorenson does not advertise every donation they make like other VRS companies do does not mean they don’t make donations. In fact, Sorenson has donated to EVERY Deaflympics since it’s been in business. Sorenson has donated to every Deaf Nation Expo since it’s been in business. Sorenson donates alot of money and services to the community.
Sorenson even has a top-notch, world-class facility for training interpreters AT NO COST to the interpreters (check out http://www.vrsii.com). No other VRS company offers this.
05/11/2010 at 7:41 PM
First of all, I run myVRS Relay Central because of all misleading and no truth information. I am tired of games. I want accurate information. This is the reason I developed my site so everyone can know what the real story.
Remember, all information I published is NOT directly from any VRS providers because I do not believe them. It’s called Biased, I am against it. I recieve all documents directly from FCC and NECA which I do believe. If you perfer to find acurate information, you can visit my site and see it there. As you see UnderTheHill says he or she found all the information from my site because I have accurate information.
After the FCC announced the recently statement in regarding the VRS rate cut, the VRS will not collapse but I do not understand why VRS are misleading that it will take VRS away. That is unpropfessional. We need honest and accurate information.
I think it’s the best for all VRS companies to back off and do not promote about FCC because it will scare deaf customers away, I would rather a deaf neutral organization target for VRS/TRS so that way there won’t be any biased or hiding information that all we do not know.
Sorenson claimed $3.89 a minute would wipe them out or file for chapter 11. That is their problem because they have been trying to take over the VRS world. So much misleading and try to take over the VRS market, at least 70%.
I want to see every VRS to be equal and provide the service that everyone should have. I am tired of fraud, misleading, unprofessional service and liars. I want honest, top quailty VRS that we should get. Is there any one? Maybe one or two.
I do support VRS but they need to it properly. I hope FCC will be more tougher on VRS and make sure that VRS is doing right job. I do not need to hear Viable part 2. I had enough. All my tax money has been abused.
05/11/2010 at 9:45 PM
Spencer,
There’s a difference between a sponsorship and a donation. A donation usually does not have strings attached so can you tell me about a donation that they did that had absolutely no strings attached?
Secondly, if their supposed world class facility is top notch, then why do they still utilize many crappy interpreters?
05/12/2010 at 2:30 AM
Joseph, the truth is, the FCC and NECA are also biased. The cost assessment is purely including interpreting costs. This means the Video Phones Sorenson provides, and Research and Development in order to reach true functional equivalency, will go entirely down the drain. Someone mentioned above the VP-200 (which five to ten year old video technology). How do you propose Sorenson come up with money to update said technology on a rate fixed entirely to just the costs of using the existing equipment? You should realize the costs such a device takes to develop, deploy, and support. Also interoperation doesn’t just come for free either, it’s a major and expensive development project (another set of costs the FCC refuses to support). The proposed rate change will insure a future with equipment you have to purchase, support, and maintain out of your own pocket- one where you only get to envy the truly mobile communication hearing users take for granted.
05/12/2010 at 12:09 PM
Vahallian–I think we will just have to agree to disagree. I happen to think Sorenson’s interpreters are the best in the industry. I’ve used all VRS companies at one time and another and am consistently satisfied with Sorenson’s interpreters….something I cannot say about other VRS companies’ interpreters.
Also–Sorenson has a huge program geared toward training new interpreters (recently graduated from ITPs, etc) and raising their skills and standards. We will be seeing more and more of this as the demand for interpreters increases as VRS grows. The program they have in place for training these new interpreters is awesome. NO OTHER VRS company offers this.
So, in a sense, naturally, we might see some “less skilled” interpreters when using Sorenson, but ask for a different interpreter and Sorenson complies instantly. It’s up to the consumer to request this.
Check out http://www.vrsii.com and Sorenson’s VI program for more information about this.
05/12/2010 at 6:01 PM
What I understand how or why Sorenson has the largest share of the VRS market is because I remembered taht Sorenson was the first VRS provider to provide “free” videophones to the deaf and hard of hearing community back in 2003 and early 2004. Of course, consumers like me, would take that opportunity to receive a “free” videophone as long as I have High Speed Internet and use ASL as a qualified applicant. That seemed how Sorenson gotten started ahead in the business few years ago when they started distributing VP-100 and VP-200 to all customer so for free. It’s the people’s choosing whether they want the product and service supplied from Sorenson. I remembered my first VP-100 back in 2004 and there were no other VRS provider providing the same or similar product at the time. Other VRS providers joined a little bit later and were providing I2Eye videophones with limited features. By that time, Sorenson seemed to distributed to thousands of customers rapidly before many other VRS are starting to catch up. I like a lot of other VRS providers products and services because of different benefits and features they can provdie for each users however I am not willing to “buy” a videophone where I got mine for free from Sorenson. Also I don’t see how it’s Sorenson’s fault if they have most of the market share if everyone had already accepted to have the free videophone. And because Sorenson seemed to invested much to the deaf and hard of hearing community by providing the products and features for the videophone, I can see that the company needs to make sure they earn enough money to continue to support the community by continuing to provide quality product and services and not to mention future reseach and development which also costs money too.
This is perfectly understandable how a company might say that the rates will hurt their business because they may have been tracking their expenses and revenues. Not only the company is seeking profits for gains, but profits would be use for innovations, research, and develop new products. I know Sorenson has been around for more than 6-7years providing services for the deaf and hard of hearing community, I think they invested a lot for us since the beginning. There were no videophones at the time, and who knows we’d have one today if Sorenson didn’t develop a videophone years ago. Other VRS have been joining the VRS industry by following trend started by Sorenson’s early success.
05/12/2010 at 6:09 PM
One more thing, Vahallian–I said world class INTERPRETER TRAINING FACILITY. This is separate from the VRS program.
05/13/2010 at 10:34 AM
Joseph, perhaps in the past the VRS providers have cried wolf about cuts to VRS, however this time it is legitimate. I have reviewed their financials, the industry simply does not work at $3.89. If you don’t believe me, ask Standard and Poors who rates their debt. They are not biased and are independent. They said the same thing.
05/13/2010 at 10:56 AM
Investor, you have me wondering, how did you access their financial information when they are a “closed” company? If Sorenson wants to prove that, then why don’t they simply show this financial information to the public? Or is it that they do not want to show how overpaid their executives and higher level managers/staff are? which may be why it does not work at $3.89?
05/13/2010 at 12:28 PM
This topic was very informative and well written. I plan to do some more research on this. Thanks for sharing this timely information. We need more like this.
05/13/2010 at 1:02 PM
They are a private company with public debt. There are ways (although they are difficult) to get access to a companies financial information (10-Q’s, and 10-k’s) if they have public debt. Standard and Poors also can get the information. I would guess Sorenson is showing that information to the FCC in order to make their case. Perhaps they do not want to show that information for competitive reasons. As far as what the executives make, that level of detail is not provided, so I can’t say one way or the other about their compensation. Although my opinion is if you do a great job you should be compensated above your peers. I will say this. The amount of profitability that the company makes is right in line with other telecommunication providers. Rural wireline companies who get a LOT more federal $$$ than Sorenson through USF funds are just as profitable or more so. Those companies pay mass amounts of dividends to shareholders every year.
05/15/2010 at 2:44 PM
Spencer, The VII is paid by Sorenson with our money, you cannot fool us. It is sponsored by Sorenson means they use our money through FCC. They think it’s a separate program, please. It’s NOT separate, it is operated and owned by Sorenson.
Therefore, I think the VII program is plainly stuipd and we do not need that program, totally waste of money and time.
You quoted “Sorenson’s interpreters are the best in the industry.” HAHAHA, are you kidding me? Sorenson’s interpreters is the most awful interpreters out there ever I seen in my life. This shows the proof that FCC public documents shows over 5,000 complaints mostly target Sorenson’s Interpreters! Why? See for yourself. You are a employee of Sorenson? Are you trying to defend Sorenson? Sorenson has been doing many dirty business since, we all know it, no question asked.
Now, Sorenson owes investors $735 Million? Wow, what a fool!
06/05/2010 at 3:34 PM
@Investor,
You are right, Sorenson can NOT survive at $3.89 but its not because of FCC rate, its because of the way the Owners leveraged the company out. They borrowed money to BUY Sorenson back in 2005 and been refinancing that amount ever since PLUS paying themselves a nice big fat dividend. The last time. Sorenson had to finance $735 MILLION dollar and out of that $735 million dollars, $178.9million was paid to GTCR directly as a profit. (in other words, they got 24% profit from the refinancing).
Sorenson has allowed themselves into this deep leveraged debt of $1.545 Billion dollars because the owners keeps refinancing the debt and paying themselves dividend.
The TRS Fund (public funded by phone companies) should not bear this expense. This deal represented a transfer of wealth from public-phone bill tax funds to investors. So, I am urging FCC to stand firm regarding the multi-tier rate plan that they have proposed.
Please do not fall into Sorenson’s trap of trying to manipulate FCC into helping them pay the leveraged debt!
06/17/2010 at 11:59 PM
I am more afraid that Snorenson video relay service Doing is going to harm the deaf community more than help it. I am constantly being bothered by them about it being the end of relay as we know it. I have stopped using Snorenson Video Relay because of all the crap… they are propegating…
08/20/2010 at 9:15 AM
i am not scared of sorenson most people scared of sorenson oh that stupid do not kiss sorenson foot.. i will hit the hammer on sorenson foot learn lesson.. do not Scare Tactics first place that was sorenson panic…. all i will say ingore sorenson one more time if sorenson ever again Scare Tactics i will show sorenson i will break vp200 for good unless do not ever again Scare Tactics period !! all most sorenson is crap .. i am brave man do not play game with FCC has nothing do with sorenson layoff … deaf people say blame on Obama or FCC too that not true it was sorenson did make up layoff worker not from FCC or Obama … it was sorenson did start layoff bythem sorenson period .. sorenson have to be careful what i got for them if i ever hear Scare Tactics i will break vp200 on youtube show them how sorenson feel …. all i say one more time i hear one word “”‘Scare Tactics”"” i am finish with sorenson that it !!!
06/03/2011 at 12:54 PM
I am so sick of the FCC and this VRS abuse. I think the government should run this business and hire interpreters to work for them. This way interpreter agency don’t steal from the FCC and they can set up VRI nationwide. I dont understand how John Yeh and his croonies are not lock up. They lock up Madoff and all 26 people pleaded guilty. Why should I pay the FCC surcharges on my phone bill when the FCC can’t recouped the money that these people stole from the taxpayers? I want justice with Viable and DHIS. Joshua and Irma are both greedy pigs.
09/30/2011 at 10:13 AM
The FCC just shut down every uncertified VRS subcontractor in the industry yesterday….that’s a lot of quality companies with fantastic interpreters. Guess the fearmongering was correct…this HURTS everyone. Hundreds, if not thousands of interpreters may have lost their jobs today and the Deaf/HoH suffer from this as well as the diversity of choices is now significantly impacted.
11/11/2011 at 4:37 PM
I truly think the VRS business should be under the government because everyone will continue to abuse VRS mins. Hire RID interpreters and make them Federal employees. It’ll provide qualities service and don’t have to lower tier rates. ALL VRS companies cheat. I have been in this industry for a long time. I don’t support no VRS companies because there is too much greed in this industry. The main goal is to keep vp in everyone home that will meet the ADA law. The VRS industry always cry poverty but when they get caught in cheating. They played stupid. The deaf people who were involved in the vrs scandal are a disgrace to our deaf community. MR. YEH and IRMA A and JOSHUA FINKLE ARE PATHOLOGICAL LIARS!!!!!