Are the days of TTYs over?

I saw this ad through an email. "15% off all Ultratec TTYs" from http://www.weitbrecht.com/onsale.php. I had mixed reactions to this news.

On one hand, I thought to myself ,"Ooh. discounts...." It never hurts to save money! You know? But then I quickly began to wonder, "Is anyone still using TTY?"

First, let's go over the timeline quickly.

• 1964 => The first TTY was developed by Robert Weitbrecht whom is Deaf. (It only worked 1 way.)
• 1973 => 2-way TTY (Manual Communications Module) was developed.
• 1980's => Micon sold hundreds of thousands of TTY to consumers and businesses, despite costing over $500.
• 1990's => Non-Printing TTYs came out.
• 2000 => VRS came out.
• 2010's => The minutes of VRS used are over 100 million while TTY uses only a few million minutes (FCC).

As I investigated a bit further. I realized the cost of TTYs is still expensive! At least $300 or more at harriscomm, maxiaids, amazon, hearmore, and others. That's absolutely ridiculous for something that was $500. (A dollar in 1970s is about $5 now. So that means it cost $2,500 for a TTY). We can literally buy a new mini-laptop for $250 or less.

I do understand the reason for 911, but I can tell you that technology is improving at a rapid pace. It won't be soon before we can do 911 through the Internet.

So again, I ask you,

"Are the days of TTYs over?"