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FYI!
Sorenson VRS had taken an aggressive marketing, distribution and deal-with-customers-later stance with a very long waiting list for a free VP-100 Videophone. They have already given out more than 8,000 customized VP-100 videophones out to the Deaf/HH community.
Sorenson customized their own VP-100 videophones with their own firmware (software that run on VP-100) which has its own private “gateway” of registered VP-100 phone numbers. That means Sorenson VP-100 videophone users may call each other by use of “artificial” phone numbers. The phone numbers are used instead of IP addresses because phone numbers are easier to remember.
D-Link videophone are generalized technology currently available to the public which may be purchased in technology stores like Best Buy. It has its own public “gateway” of registered phone numbers.
What happens if Sorenson VP-100 gateway is private and closed to “outside” world and the D-link gateway is publicly available?
The result is both gateways do not work together. Sorenson had made sure of that and gained the edge in the VRS market; however, advocates like NAD(National Association of the Deaf) had sent letters to Sorenson asking them to “open up” their private gateway to the public and to allow their VP-100 to access other VRS providers. Sorenson is blocking other VRS providers on their VP-100 making sure people only will use Sorenson’s Video Relay Service.
Although, Sorenson has made attempts to block out non-Sorenson videophones which causes the inability for VP-100 videophones not to connect with other D-link videophones by using phone numbers.
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