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A Telecommunications Paradigm is born!

When the VRS industry was first formed, one company innovated and grew into an industry giant with the adroit use of the ‘Network Effect’. For those who don’t know what a Network Effect (Source: Wikipedia) is, here’s a quick primer. Basically, a provider creates a service that is much needed by a certain population, and provides the necessary technological infrastructure to service that population. The more the population has the equipment, the more it becomes valuable to them, and the more they will use the service, and repeat… All of a sudden, TTY’s have gone into the Great Landfill in the Sky.

In Sorenson VRS‘s case, it is the venerable VP-100 and later, the VP-200 units that have helped propel them into an industry giant and have largely solidified its business in the highly competitive VRS market. From a business case perspective, I have much to admire about Sorenson VRS and how they innovated to where they are now. Unfortunately for them, their business model and approach to service for Deaf/HH consumers are akin to that of landline phones; Their ‘new’ paradigm is increasingly becoming stale.

Enter a New Paradigm!

We all are increasingly aware of anecdotal evidence and popular media glamorizing the ‘death’ of the landline phone. People are cutting the ‘cord’ in mass droves and resorting to their cell phones as their main telecommunications medium. Proliferation of VoIP technologies have largely driven the stake into the landline industry. This mass paradigm shift does not bode well for the VRS industry giant, as technological innovations have now reached the U.S. shores; cell phones with video calling capabilities. Currently, at this time of writing, it’s Sprint’s EVO 4G and the iPhone 4.

Interestingly enough, Apple seemingly is borrowing a page from the Sorenson VRS playbook, creating a ‘network effect’ of sorts with FaceTime, their video-calling approach exclusively for iPhone 4 devices. Granted, this is a phone designed for the mainstream population, so I’m sure the FCC can’t mandate interoperability for the new class of video cell phones just yet. The Sprint EVO 4G relies on 3rd party applications such as Fring and Qik for videocalling.

This will have a profound impact on the VRS industry over time. Many Deaf/HH people will ‘cut the cord’ with their high-speed internet provider and simply go with a cell phone that is capable of video calling and use VRS services at anytime and anywhere. (Ok, where there’s a signal, there’s VRS!) Thus, a new paradigm is now born, and the race is on for VRS providers to provide VRS services to cell phones with video calling capabilities. The VRS provider that first comes up with interoperable solutions for these new phones (i.e. VRS services and point to point calling) will become the dominant VRS provider of the future.

Who will win the Race?

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. I’m sure engineers at VRS companies are furiously working on interoperable solutions for this new class of videophones. I’m sure we’ll gain access to VRS services and point to point calling features on these cell phones fairly soon. My bet’s on the EVO 4G; it’s based on open-source Android platform and the Deaf/HH consumer can make video calls at anytime and anywhere there’s a 4G signal. (I’m not so sure about 3G signals, but WiFi is just as handy!) The iPhone 4 may eventually gain entry into the VRS arena, as Apple eventually opens up the FaceTime video telephony standard to VRS companies.

Exciting times are ahead for Deaf/HH consumers, indeed! May the next VRS industry giant lead the way.