Hearing Aid Advocates Say 700 MHz Mandate Must Stand
The Hearing Industries Assn. told the FCC it mustn’t exempt rural carriers from requirements that they offer hearing aid compatibility (HAC) handsets for 700 MHz as soon as the spectrum comes online. The Rural Telecom Group (RTG) said in Sept. 29 comments on rules for the 700 MHz that an HAC mandate could slow rural deployment in the band.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“It is important to note that HAC is not optional; it is required by Section 710 of the Communications Act,” HIA said. “The Commission has the authority to waive the requirements only if certain conditions are met. As HIA pointed out in its initial comments, the work that has already been done on HAC compliance in the 850 MHz band demonstrates the technical feasibility of compliance in the 700 MHz band. In addition, HAC relates to voice communication, so there is no need to wait and see what other services may develop before imposing the requirements on voice handsets.”
HIA argued it’s “legally and morally wrong” to discriminate against the hearing impaired by not making handsets available at the outset. By sticking with a mandate, the FCC will “avoid the problem of design transition that delayed full implementation of HAC requirements in the cellular and PCS bands.”
Peter Tannenwald, attorney for the HIA, told us he was puzzled by RTG’s resistance to the requirement. “The rural companies have come in and said let the rural people out of everything and we don’t understand,” he said. “We're basically saying that everybody buys the handsets. We've fought for years to get this, and the rural companies are just saying we don’t want to be bothered.”
By sticking with the requirement the FCC will assure that handsets are available, Tannenwald said. “You don’t start out a new technology and leave the hard of hearing people out of it,” he said: “In this particular case the onus of designing hearing aid capability falls on the manufacturers. The cellular operators don’t make the phones hearing aid capable, the manufacturers do. We're saying start making this product hearing aid capable from the start.” He added that no manufacturers have told the FCC they can’t build hearing aid-capable phones for the 700 MHz band.
RTG said in its comments the Commission should avoid imposing E-911 or HAC mandates on companies offering service at 700 MHz, at least in initial deployments. “RTG believes that the imposition of such requirements is premature,” the group said: “It is not yet clear what services will be provided or what technology will be used to provide them. The technologies chosen to deploy 700 MHz services may or may not be able to comply with existing 911/E911/HAC requirements.”