Industry Groups Support Extension of CTIA's Hearing-Aid Compatibility Waiver
Wireless industry groups on Friday supported a CTIA petition asking the FCC to extend a temporary waiver that allows use of the interim volume control testing method for hearing-aid compatibility (HAC) compliance (see 2507020051). Comments were due Friday in dockets 23-388 and 20-3. Without further agency action, the current waiver would expire Sept. 29.
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!
“We urge the Commission to extend the present waiver deadline until the Commission updates its rules to reflect the updated volume control standard,” said the filing, which was signed by the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, the Consumer Technology Association, the Mobile & Wireless Forum and the Telecommunications Industry Association. The groups asked the FCC to act “sufficiently in advance” of the expiration date “so that the appropriate HAC testing can be completed for handsets coming onto the market in the latter half of 2025.”
“A robust pipeline of available HAC-compliant handsets is critical to achieving the 100% HAC-compliant benchmarks, recently adopted by the Commission, which will be phased in over the next few years,” the filing said. Extending the waiver “will facilitate the introduction of new, HAC-compliant handsets.”