Sprint Selected as State of Maine's Telecommunications Relay Services Provider

Sprint has been selected to provide Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) and Captioned Telephone (CapTel) services to the state of Maine, effective January 1.

The Maine Telecommunications Relay Service Council (MeTRS) chose Sprint Accessibility technologies for its Maine Relay Service.

"We are looking forward to working with the Maine Telecommunications Relay Service Council to provide Maine Relay Service to Maine’s residents," said Mike Ellis, Global Vice President of accessibility for Sprint. "Sprint Accessibility provides an exciting array of services making communication for people who are deaf, deaf blind, hard of hearing or who have a speech disability more accessible than ever."

Maine Relay Service is accessed by dialing 711, and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a "relay" or service that enables those who are deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, or speech disabled to communicate with traditional telephone users through a specialized text telephone and third-party operator called a relay operator. All calls are completely confidential.

"As chairman for the Maine Telecommunications Relay Service Council, I am excited to have Sprint Accessibility be the new TRS provider for Maine Relay Service," said Bill Nye, chairperson - Maine Telecommunications Relay Service Council.

While the use of traditional relay services has declined due to advanced technologies, the use of captioned telephones (CapTel) and Relay Conference Captioning (RCC) for those who are hard of hearing continues to increase. Traditional relay, CapTel and RCC are all administered by the MeTRS.

RCC is a free service for anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing to engage in meetings (in-person or remote), group conversations in a videoconference and multi-party conference call. Using the same high-quality captioners that produce closed captioning for television, RCC users receive real-time text streamed to any connected device.