The interstate Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund needs $1,793,361,015 for the July 2025 to June 2026 program year, and 99.46% of the service budget is allocated to internet-based relay, according to the fund administrator’s annual filing with the FCC. Video Relay Service (VRS) alone carries a $680.1 million fund requirement, while captioned telephone over IP (IP CTS) carries $796.1 million. Meanwhile, the revenue base that pays for all of it keeps shrinking: the combined interstate and intrastate contribution base fell from $105.9 billion in 2020 to $70.5 billion in 2025. We aggregated data from Rolka Loube’s TRS Fund Annual and Supplemental Reports, its monthly Fund Performance Status Reports for 2026, the FCC’s 2023 VRS Compensation Order and 2026 modernization proposal, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. For the human side of this market, see our companion roundups on sign language interpreting and age-related hearing loss.
TL;DR
- Gross TRS Fund requirement for 2025-26: $1,793,361,015; net requirement after the cash reserve: $1,515,375,827 (Rolka Loube Supplemental Report 2025)
- IP-based services take 99.4644% of the service requirement; analog relay takes 0.5356% (Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025)
- VRS fund requirement: $680,148,351 plus a $116,917,206 two-month reserve (Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025)
- VRS large-provider rates for 2025-26: $6.73 (Tier I) and $4.21 (Tier II) per minute; small providers: $8.33 (Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025)
- Projected VRS demand for July 2025 to April 2026: about 118.4 million minutes (sum of Rolka Loube Exhibit 2 tiers)
- ASR represents about 79.4% of projected IP CTS minutes for 2025-26 (Rolka Loube Supplemental Report 2025, our calculation)
- VRS industry average operating margin in 2024: 25.95%, versus a 7.75% to 12.35% reasonable range (Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025)
- In August 2026 the Fund paid $71,106,587 for IP CTS and $50,752,630 for VRS (Rolka Loube Fund Performance Status Report, August 2026)
- The FCC’s 2023 VRS plan raised first-year VRS spending by an estimated $143 million, or 29.5% (FCC 23-78)
- Intrastate CTS minutes fell 40.3% between 2023 and 2024 (Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025)
- 73,900 interpreter and translator jobs in the US in 2025, median pay $60,170 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook)
1. TRS Fund Size and Who Pays for It
The TRS Fund is a quiet $1.8 billion line item hidden inside every phone and VoIP bill. Its 2025-26 gross requirement is $1,793,361,015, and the money flows almost entirely to two services: VRS for American Sign Language users and IP CTS for people with hearing loss who read captions during calls. Traditional text telephone (TTY), speech-to-speech and analog captioned telephone together need just $9.4 million.
The structural problem is on the revenue side. The interstate-only contribution base has fallen from $81.95 billion in 2004 to $32.22 billion in 2025, a drop of about 60.7% (our math from Rolka Loube Supplemental Exhibit 3). Even the broader combined base used for IP services slid 33.4% between 2020 and 2025. A shrinking base funding a growing budget is why the IP-based contribution factor reached 0.02137 for 2025-26, against 0.01599 cited as the current factor at the April 2025 Advisory Council meeting. Full tables are in the Rolka Loube 2025 TRS Fund Annual Report.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gross TRS Fund requirement, PY 2025-26 | $1,793,361,015 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Net requirement after revised $278M cash reserve | $1,515,375,827 | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report, June 2025 |
| IP-based contribution factor, PY 2025-26 | 0.02137 (proposed 0.02178 in April) | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report, June 2025 |
| IP-based contribution factor cited as current in April 2025 | 0.01599 | TRS Advisory Council minutes, April 10, 2025 |
| Combined interstate and intrastate base, 2020 vs 2025 | $105.87B vs $70.55B | Rolka Loube Supplemental Exhibit 3, 2025 |
| Contributors billed, PY 2024-25 (through March 2025) | 5,508 | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D) |
| Share of billings sent to Treasury for collection, PY 2024-25 | 0.20% | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D) |
| Administrative costs budgeted, incl. $11.3M MITRE research | $30,079,185 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
Context note: the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program is also funded from the TRS Fund, with $10,000,000 budgeted for 2025-26. Monthly status reports show the Fund closing August 2026 with a $311,110,271 balance.
2. VRS Minutes, Rates, and the Tier Structure
VRS demand is the most predictable number in the program. The FCC’s 2023 order said demand for VRS “has been remarkably stable over time”, and Rolka Loube accepted the providers’ own projections without adjustment for 2025-26. Those projections add up to roughly 118.4 million minutes for the 10 months from July 2025 to April 2026, and about 77.2% of them (91.4 million) fall into Tier II, the cheapest per-minute rate paid to the two large providers.
That concentration explains the policy fight. Tiers exist so small providers can survive, but the bulk of VRS money now flows through a large-provider Tier II rate that rose from $3.92 in 2023-24 to $4.21 in 2025-26 via annual Employment Cost Index adjustments. Rolka Loube has floated paying all non-Emergent minutes at the Tier II rate, which it says would cut the VRS requirement to $629.7 million. The rate history is set out in FCC 23-78, the 2023 VRS Compensation Order.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| VRS fund requirement, PY 2025-26 (plus two-month reserve) | $680,148,351 (+$116,917,206) | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Projected VRS minutes, July 2025 to April 2026 (Emergent / Tier I / Tier II) | 7,000,307 / 20,000,000 / 91,421,266.6 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 2, 2025 |
| VRS rates, PY 2025-26 (Emergent / Tier I / Tier II) | $8.33 / $6.73 / $4.21 per minute | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| VRS rates, PY 2023-24 (Emergent / Tier I / Tier II) | $7.77 / $6.27 / $3.92 per minute | FCC 23-78 |
| Annual ECI inflation adjustment applied for 2025-26 | 3.38% | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Average VRS compensation per minute, 2010 vs 2017 | $6.30 vs $3.88 (down about 38.4%) | FCC 23-78 |
| VRS requirement if all non-Emergent minutes paid at Tier II | $629.7 million | TRS Advisory Council minutes, April 10, 2025 |
| VRS paid in August 2026 (4 providers paid) | $50,752,630 | Rolka Loube Fund Performance Status Report, August 2026 |
Outlier note: in June 2026, five VRS providers were paid (Convo, ZP Better Together, Sorenson, Bond and Tive), and actual VRS support came in 11.1% below projection ($51,751,164 paid versus $58,221,657 projected).
3. VRS Economics: Interpreter Costs and Margins
The 2023 rate reset was sold as a wage and technology investment. The FCC assumed communications assistant (CA) costs would rise 65% over 2020-21 levels and engineering plus R&D 75% over 2022, and set rates accordingly. Two years later, the cost filings show providers spending less than that assumption on interpreters and earning margins far above the target. CA-related cost (RSDR line B1) averaged $1.76 per minute in 2024 against the FCC’s $2.22 estimate, while the industry average operating margin reached 25.95%.
For interpreters themselves, VRS sits inside a modest labor market: BLS counts 73,900 interpreter and translator jobs and projects only 2% growth over a decade, though it singles out video relay as a driver of American Sign Language demand. The occupation data comes from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| VRS total cost per minute, 2023 / 2024 actual | $3.7980 / $4.2963 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-4, 2025 |
| VRS total cost per minute, 2025 / 2026 projected | $4.5547 / $4.6697 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-4, 2025 |
| CA-related cost per minute, 2024 actual vs FCC estimate | $1.76 vs $2.22 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Engineering plus R&D per minute, 2024 vs FCC guideline | $0.3008 vs $0.3700 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Industry average VRS operating margin, 2024 | 25.95% (range: 7.75% to 12.35%) | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Share of VRS allowable expenses that were CA-related, 2022-23 | 54.6% | FCC 23-78 |
| US interpreter and translator jobs, 2025 / median pay | 73,900 / $60,170 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Projected interpreter employment growth, 2025-2035 | 2% (about 6,000 openings a year) | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
Context note: VRS total cost per minute rose about 23% between 2023 actuals and 2026 projections ($3.7980 to $4.6697, our math). The FCC’s 2023 order also cited a $59.91 hourly ZipRecruiter figure for video relay interpreters in Washington, DC as evidence against a provider’s $80 to $100 claim; we treat that as a third-party estimate quoted by the FCC, not a wage survey.
4. IP CTS: Captioned Calls and the Shift to ASR
By minutes, captioned telephone is now the giant of the relay system. About 79.4% of projected IP CTS minutes for 2025-26 are ASR-only, meaning software, not a human captioner, generates the text (453.7 million ASR minutes versus 117.7 million CA minutes, July 2025 to April 2026). The FCC created separate CA and ASR rates in 2024 and scheduled the ASR rate to fall about 10% a year, from $1.17 to $1.05 and then $0.95.
Even at falling rates, ASR is profitable: providers’ own filings put ASR cost at $0.6494 per minute for the 2025-26 program year. For a look at how speech-recognition accuracy compares to human transcription in high-stakes settings, see our courtroom speech transcription accuracy roundup. The underlying demand base is large: the NIDCD quick statistics page reports that about 15% of American adults (37.5 million) report some trouble hearing.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| IP CTS fund requirement, PY 2025-26 (supplemental) | $933,316,179 incl. reserve | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report, June 2025 |
| Projected ASR vs CA minutes, July 2025 to April 2026 | 453,731,295 vs 117,678,240.7 | Rolka Loube Supplemental Exhibit 2, 2025 |
| IP CTS rates, PY 2025-26 (CA base + supplement / ASR) | $1.40 + $0.22 / $1.05 per minute | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| CA cost per minute, 2024 actual vs 2026 projected | $1.3421 vs $1.0533 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-5, 2025 |
| ASR cost per minute, 2024 actual / 2026 projected | $0.6509 / $0.6361 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-5.a, 2025 |
| IP CTS projected minutes, June 2026 / August 2026 | 57,399,884 / 64,229,714 | Rolka Loube Fund Performance Status Reports, 2026 |
| IP CTS support paid, August 2026 (7 providers) | $71,106,587 | Rolka Loube Fund Performance Status Report, August 2026 |
| US adults reporting some trouble hearing | 15% (37.5 million) | NIDCD Quick Statistics (2012 data) |
Most recent available data note: the NIDCD prevalence figure dates from 2012 survey data and is flagged as older than three years. The CA supplemental rate applies only when CAs are paid at least $17.20 an hour.
5. Analog Relay: TTY, Speech-to-Speech, and CTS in Decline
Analog relay is a case study in what happens to per-unit costs when volume collapses. States reported intrastate CTS minutes fell 40.3% in a single year, from 3,075,671.4 in 2023 to 1,834,772.9 in 2024, and seven jurisdictions have stopped offering CTS entirely. Because the MARS formula divides total state payments by minutes, rates rise as usage falls: the interstate TTY rate jumped 63.2% from 2020-21 to 2024-25, and another 20% for 2025-26.
Rolka Loube flagged that 27 jurisdictions now pay flat-rate TTY or STS contracts, which produces implied per-minute rates far above any per-minute contract. The FCC has asked for comment on transitioning analog relay to IP-based alternatives. Exact state-by-state figures sit in Exhibits 1-1 and 1-2 of the 2025 Annual Report.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate TTY rate, PY 2020-21 vs 2024-25 vs 2025-26 | $3.7526 vs $6.1229 vs $7.3512 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Interstate STS rate, PY 2025-26 (includes $1.131 outreach additive) | $8.4822 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Interstate CTS rate, PY 2025-26 | $3.1893 (up 14.45%) | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Intrastate CTS minutes, 2023 vs 2024 | 3,075,671.4 vs 1,834,772.9 (down 40.3%) | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Intrastate TTY plus STS minutes and payments, 2024 | 2,226,205.9 minutes / $16,365,283.27 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-1, 2025 |
| Projected interstate TTY / STS / CTS minutes, July 2025 to April 2026 | 658,738.5 / 109,526.2 / 342,171.4 | Rolka Loube Table 3, 2025 |
| Jurisdictions no longer offering CTS | 7 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
Context note: the total STS outreach additive is only $173,424 across 52 jurisdictions, under $3,400 per state, which Rolka Loube says is unlikely to meet the FCC’s outreach goal.
6. Users, Providers, and the 2026 Regulatory Agenda
Relay is a registered-user program, and the registration funnel is unforgiving. Since January 2018 the User Registration Database (URD) has processed 927,454 consumer registration requests, but only 255,209 were accepted with no identity risk. As of March 31, 2025, 112,050 unique URD IDs and 338,143 telephone numbers remained active, a useful proxy for the active VRS user base that providers rarely disclose.
The 2026 agenda is about modernization rather than rates. The FCC’s March 2026 notice (FCC 26-4) proposes adding captioning functionality to VRS platforms and asks about ASR and IP Relay quality metrics, while the 2026 Unified Agenda lists IP CTS compensation methodology as an open item. For broader context on captions outside the phone network, see our short-form video caption usage roundup. The proposal text is in the Federal Register notice for FCC 26-4.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| URD registration requests processed, through March 31, 2025 | 927,454 | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D) |
| Requests accepted with no identity risk | 255,209 (42.16% of those reviewed) | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D) |
| Active URD IDs / active telephone numbers, March 31, 2025 | 112,050 / 338,143 | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D) |
| Providers listed with FCC-certified relay services | 14 | Rolka Loube Annual Report Appendix A, 2025 |
| Cap on VRS minutes handled by at-home CAs | Raised from 50% to 80% of monthly minutes | FCC 26-4 NPRM, Federal Register 2026 |
| Comment / reply deadlines on FCC 26-4 | April 16, 2026 / May 18, 2026 | Federal Register, 91 FR 12736 |
| Express comments received on the 2021 VRS compensation notice | About 1,300 | FCC 23-78 |
Context note: the 2026 Unified Agenda entry is available on the Federal Register; it confirms IP CTS compensation is under review but publishes no figures.
Summary: Telecommunications Relay Service by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gross TRS Fund requirement, PY 2025-26 | $1,793,361,015 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Net TRS Fund requirement, PY 2025-26 | $1,515,375,827 | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report 2025 |
| IP-based share of service requirement | 99.4644% | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| IP-based contribution factor, PY 2025-26 | 0.02137 | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report 2025 |
| Combined contribution base, 2025 | $70.55 billion | Rolka Loube Supplemental Exhibit 3, 2025 |
| VRS fund requirement | $680,148,351 | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Projected VRS minutes, July 2025 to April 2026 | About 118.4 million | Rolka Loube Exhibit 2, 2025 (our sum) |
| VRS Tier II rate, PY 2025-26 | $4.21 per minute | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| VRS cost per minute, 2024 | $4.2963 | Rolka Loube Exhibit 1-4, 2025 |
| VRS industry operating margin, 2024 | 25.95% | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| First-year VRS spending increase from 2023 plan | $143 million (29.5%) | FCC 23-78 |
| IP CTS fund requirement incl. reserve | $933,316,179 | Rolka Loube Supplemental Report 2025 |
| ASR share of projected IP CTS minutes | About 79.4% | Rolka Loube Supplemental Exhibit 2, 2025 (our calculation) |
| IP CTS ASR rate, PY 2025-26 | $1.05 per minute | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| IP CTS support paid, August 2026 | $71,106,587 | Rolka Loube Fund Performance Status Report, August 2026 |
| Intrastate CTS minutes decline, 2023 to 2024 | 40.3% | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Interstate TTY rate increase, PY 2020-21 to 2024-25 | 63.2% | Rolka Loube TRS Fund Annual Report 2025 |
| Active URD IDs, March 2025 | 112,050 | Rolka Loube 2023-2024 Administrator Report |
| US interpreter and translator jobs, 2025 | 73,900 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
Methodology and Sources
- Rolka Loube, Interstate TRS Fund Report: Payment Formula and Fund Size Estimate, April 30, 2025: rates, demand projections, cost exhibits, URD facts and the 2023-2024 Administrator Report (Appendix D).
- Rolka Loube, Supplemental Report, June 6, 2025: revised fund size, contribution factors, contribution base history and TRS Advisory Council minutes (Appendix H).
- Rolka Loube, Fund Performance Status Report, August 2026 and June 2026: monthly payments, projected minutes and fund balance.
- Rolka Loube TRS reports index: archive of annual, supplemental and monthly reports.
- FCC 23-78, VRS Report and Order and FNPRM, September 2023: 2023-28 VRS compensation plan, cost adjustments and fund impact.
- Federal Register, Internet-Based TRS Modernization NPRM (FCC 26-4), March 17, 2026.
- Federal Register, Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions 2026.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Interpreters and Translators.
- NIDCD, Quick Statistics About Hearing.
- Data watch: Rolka Loube’s 2026-27 annual report (normally filed around May 1) was not posted on its reports index when we checked, so 2025-26 is the latest full rate and demand cycle; the August 2026 status report lists per-minute rates for TTY, STS, CTS and IP Relay identical to 2025-26, but we did not treat that as a confirmed 2026-27 rate order. Provider-level VRS minutes and market shares are redacted as confidential in both FCC 23-78 and Rolka Loube filings, and we found no public ZVRS, Convo or Sorenson disclosure of minutes, so no provider market-share figure is reported here. Monthly “Total Support Paid” may include minutes from prior periods. Several shares (79.4% ASR, 77.2% Tier II, 33.4% and 60.7% contribution-base declines, 23% VRS cost growth) are our own calculations from the published tables, with the inputs shown. The FCC’s fcc.gov web pages returned HTTP 403 when fetched, so FCC material was read from docs.fcc.gov and the Federal Register. Contribution factors conflict across documents: the April 2025 Advisory Council minutes cite 0.01599 as the current IP-based factor, while Rolka Loube’s Exhibit 2 lists 0.01992 as the prior year’s proposed factor; we report both as published. The NIDCD prevalence data dates from 2012.
Last updated: October 4, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when Rolka Loube publishes its 2026-27 TRS Fund Annual Report and the FCC releases the 2026-27 TRS rate order.