What is 711 and telecommunications relay service?

Telecommunications Relay Service (“TRS” or “relay”) is a communications service that allows persons with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls. You can dial 711 to connect to the following forms of TRS anywhere in the United States: English and Spanish Text-to-Voice TTY, Voice Carry Over, Hearing Carry Over and Speech-to-Speech. 711 access is not available for Captioned Telephone Service, IP Captioned Telephone Service, IP Relay, and Video Relay Service. More information about the available types of relay service can be found on the FCC’s TRS website, and you can contact your state relay provider, as listed in the FCC’s TRS Directory.

TRS providers are compensated for the costs of providing TRS from either a state or a federal fund, and there is no charge to the TRS user other than standard calling rates. TRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and all calls are confidential. In the event of an emergency, TTY users should call 911 directly and not make a TTY-based TRS call via 711.