Captioned Telephone Service: Who Pays, ClearCaptions and State Programs

Free caption phone: what the federal fund pays

FCC rules make providers of internet captioned telephone service (IP CTS) print a notice about who pays. The line that matters reads: "There is a cost for each minute of captions generated, paid from a federally administered fund." It sits in 47 CFR 64.604. A word like "free" on a caption phone can point to four different things, and that line settles only the first.

The captions. The fund pays for each minute, so this is the part the federal text answers.

The phone. The funding line speaks of captions, and the registration rules in 47 CFR 64.611 refer both to equipment obtained at no charge and to equipment paid for. Ask whether yours is supplied, sold or lent, and who owns it if you stop the service.

The internet connection. IP CTS runs over the internet. Ask which connection the model needs, and treat that connection as its own line in your budget.

The voice plan. Captions show what the other person says during a call, and the call still travels over a phone service. Ask whether your landline or mobile plan has to stay in place.

How to qualify for a caption phone

The federal route is registration with a provider, under 47 CFR 64.611(j). Before a provider can ask the fund to pay for your calls, it collects your full name, date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number, your home address and your phone number.

It also needs a signed certification from you. Under the current wording you state that you have "a hearing loss that necessitates use of captioned telephone service", that a live communications assistant provides the captions, that a federal program funds the cost of captioning each call, and that you will try, as far as you can, to keep unregistered people from making captioned calls on your service. The form has to stand apart from any other agreement, with its own signature, under penalty of perjury. The paragraph names hearing loss, and it sets no age or income test.

The same section also has paragraphs on a certification signed by an independent professional, such as a physician or an audiologist, tied to how the equipment was obtained. Equipment from a local, state or federal government program can be documented instead. Ask the provider, in writing, whether any of this applies to you. This page does not decide eligibility.

Why are caption phones illegal

They are legal to own and use once you are registered. The alarm behind this search looks like the notice providers must print, which opens: "FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS ANYONE BUT REGISTERED USERS WITH HEARING LOSS FROM USING INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) CAPTIONED TELEPHONES WITH THE CAPTIONS TURNED ON." The limit is on who uses the captions. Each device a provider distributes must have a one-step way to turn captions on, so a guest in your home can make a call with them off.

The same section also bars an IP CTS provider from offering a person any direct or indirect incentive to register, and it prohibits joint marketing between providers and hearing health professionals. A gift for signing up is a reason to stop and ask questions.

Captioned telephone service providers

The table at the top of this page copies the IP CTS section of the FCC provider list, as displayed in October 2026. Each provider appears with full or conditional certification, and the list can lag behind events, so look at the live page before you rely on a status.

Certification concerns the provider. It does not approve a phone model, set a bill or decide who is eligible. If a provider you are considering shows conditional certification, ask it what that means for your service.

ClearCaptions: is it free, monthly fee and who qualifies

ClearCaptions, LLC appears on the FCC list with full certification. An FCC public notice released March 10, 2026 makes it eligible for compensation from the TRS Fund through March 10, 2031, with captions from communications assistants and automatic speech recognition. That grant is about how ClearCaptions gets paid. It says nothing about how good a phone is, and we have not tested one.

Is it free? The fund pays for the captions, so that part is settled by the federal text. The phone, shipping and setup fall under ClearCaptions' own terms, and those are the place to confirm them.

Is there a monthly fee? The federal sources here describe a per-minute payment from the fund to the provider. They set no monthly fee for users and they promise none, so a yes or no has to come from ClearCaptions. Any internet or voice plan you keep is between you and that company.

Who qualifies? The federal certification above applies: you state that your hearing loss makes captioned service necessary, on a form of its own. The FCC notice authorizes ClearCaptions to serve "all eligible consumers", and the provider handles your registration.

Four questions are worth having answered in writing before you register. Do you bill me anything each month? What do the phone, shipping and setup cost? What happens to the phone if I stop? Which connection does this model need?

Free caption phone for hearing impaired: four state programs

State equipment programs run apart from the federal fund, each on its own terms, and these four show how far they differ.

New Mexico's equipment program lends devices at no cost to qualifying residents. Its published conditions include a total household income of $50,000 or less, New Mexico residence, a documented hearing or speech loss, and a landline for an amplified phone or internet for an iPad. Its iPad rules allow access to IP CTS, so here the route can be a tablet and not a captioned desk phone.

Minnesota's MN ACT program said in an earlier announcement that it provides free telecommunication devices, with captioned phones on its list. Treat that as a starting point and ask about current stock and conditions.

Washington has stopped analog captioned service, and its program no longer distributes analog captioned telephones. The state points residents to FCC-certified providers for IP phones.

A Massachusetts state page describes a CapTel phone that requires an analog telephone line. That is a device description, so ask about availability.

If you get equipment through a government program, keep the paperwork. Federal rules let you show it to a provider in place of an independent professional's certification.

Captioned telephone without internet

The answer depends on the phone and on your state. Minnesota's device page says: "Some captioned phones need internet service and some do not." Massachusetts lists an analog line for the CapTel phone it describes. Washington, which has left analog behind, tells people without internet or a cell phone hot spot to contact its equipment program directly.

So ask about the exact model before you order: does it use broadband, Wi-Fi, a mobile hot spot or an analog line, and which of those do you already have? If you have no internet at home, your state equipment program is a sensible first call.