The 981st: Did the mobile phone fee increase by 1 yen?What is a "telephone relay service" that can use a phone even if you don't hear your ears

You may be wondering that there is an unfamiliar word "telephone relay service fee" on your mobile phone invoice.

You may think, "I don't use such a service!", But this is a fee for public services that can be used with confidence even for people who are disabled.

So what kind of service is it?I will explain the details in this article in detail.

"Telephone relay service fee" from July, 7 yen burden per year

A service that connects the hearing impaired and healthy people / emergency calls by operator interpreting telephone

Telephone relay service is both a person who has difficulty in hearing and speaking (hereinafter referred to as "hearing impaired") and a person other than the hearing impaired, and the interpreter operator interprets the sign language, letters and audio by telephone.It is a service that connects to the direction.

A hearing impaired person tells the interpreter operator of the "Telephone Relay Service Offering Organization" through sign language or chat.The interpreter operator tells the general phone of a person who can hear it, or to the emergency call reception agency, such as police and fire departments, vice versa, and other people with hearing impairments and other people and emergency call reception agencies.We will make mediation so that you can communicate by phone in both directions.

Such telephone relay services have been provided by private businesses in the past in Japan.However, most of them have been stopped in a few years due to the sluggish user, and the situation has not been widespread.

However, in December 2020, it was launched in July 2021 as a public service in July 2021.

The Japanese law, "Basic Law for Persons with Disabilities," imposes obligations to the national and local governments for the following items, and imposes their duty to business operators.

It can be said that the public service "Telephone Relay Service", which was launched this time, has taken legislation measures for the above three.

The Nippon Foundation Telephone Relay Service has been nominated as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications as a telephone relay service provider.

This service is now provided to people with hearing impairment

This service allows you to register as a service user who has hearing impairment, audio and language dysfunction, or a corporation to which the target person belongs.

The registered person with a smartphone uses a smartphone -dedicated app, presses the phone number of the person you want to call, and tells the operator that comes out what you want to talk about in sign language and chat.

Registers are assigned a telephone number that starts with a dedicated "050", so if you put it on that number, you can communicate with people with disabilities over the phone through a relay service interpreting operator.is.

Another feature of this service is that it can be used 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, just as healthy people can use telephones at any time.There are also toll -free and emergency calls (110 or 119).

In addition, the usage fee also imposes the same level of telephone charges for those who can hear.

As of July 2021, it is as above.Calling charges are free for emergency calls or toll -free dials.

It becomes a public service, and the establishment of the grant system is institutionalized.

The "telephone relay service", which has been performed in private services so far, has changed as public services.

In the era when telephone relay services were being conducted in the private sector, the cost was borne by the user (that is, the hearing impaired), but when the public system became a public system, the "grant" system was created and telephone providers.We decided to pay the contributions and collect expenses from telephone users.

Specifically, a business operator that provides telephone services such as landline and mobile phones pays the contribution to the Electric Communication Business Association, which is a support organization, and the support agency is a service provider as grant.The service will be maintained by paid to the Nippon Foundation Telephone Relay Service.

Mobile companies and MVNO announced the "Telephone Relay Service" fee

Land -phone / mobile phone operators have transferred this contribution to the user, contributing the contributions according to the number of telephone numbers, from July to January 2022 in FY2021, from telephone users to each from the telephone users.1 yen per month (7 yen in total) will be collected as "telephone relay service fee".

If 1 yen is recorded as a "telephone relay service fee" in the usage fee of portable electricity, remember that it is a contribution to maintaining this service.

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