New Device Promises Digital Cell Phone Compatibility with Hearing Aids

Those of you who wear hearing aids and have tried to use a digital cellular phone have most likely not had a lot of success. The reason is that the digital phones interfere with the electronics of many hearing aids and cause a static-like noise. Analog cell phones do not have this problem, and many people with hearing aids have reported good success with analog cell phones.

Unfortunately, the industry is moving increasingly to digital phones, and it may soon be difficult to find analog phones. Does this mean that people with hearing loss will no longer be able to use a cell phone?

It looks like technology may come to the rescue. A device called Soundmate developed by a British company named Orange reportedly enables hearing aids and digital cell phones to work happily together - at least in Europe!

Because the European digital standard (GSM) is different from the standards used in the US, there is no guarantee that the device will work with American phones. Hopefully someone will try it on a US phone. If it works, I have no doubt that some enterprising person will make it available here in the "colonies".