Cellular Phone Access - Part 3
August 2002
Editor: The analog cell phone is on its way to extinction. The FCC
has just stipulated a five-year phase out for analog service. Until now,
the FCC has withstood corporate pressure to eliminate analog service,
partly because analog is the only service that is hearing aid
compatible. To eliminate analog service without requiring digital
service to be hearing aid compatible is a sellout of the hearing loss
community. Email them at fccinfo@fcc.gov to complain.
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FCC STREAMLINES PART 22 OF ITS RULES
Eliminates Analog Service Requirement After Five-Year Transition
Period
Washington, DC -- As part of its Biennial Review of regulations,
today the Federal Communications Commission made significant
modifications to Part 22 of its rules that cover the Cellular
Radiotelephone and other services. The Commission modified or eliminated
various rules that have become outdated due to supervening rules,
technological change, or increased competition among providers of
Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS). Among the rule changes adopted
by the Commission is the amendment of sections 22.901 and 22.933 of FCC
rules to modify the requirement that cellular carriers provide analog
service compatible with Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)
specifications by establishing a five-year transition period after which
the analog standard will not be required, but may still be provided.
To view this News Release in its entirety, visit the FCC's website at
http://www.fcc.gov. Also available at this site are statements by
Commissioners Copps and Martin. If you do not have access to the
Internet and want the news release and statements e-mailed to you, send
an e-mail to fccinfo@fcc.gov stating your request and it will be
electronically e-mailed to you.
We hope you find the information on disability issues in this
bulletin helpful. If you would be interested in receiving a similar
electronic bulletin containing more general FCC consumer information,
please click on www.fcc.gov/cgb/emailservice.html to subscribe.
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August 2002
Editor: I just read an article from Scotland's Edinburgh News that
announces a partnership between the mobile phone company Vodafone and
the technology company Hearing Enhancement to provide hearing aid
compatible cell phones in England. This is obviously great news for
English people with hearing loss.
It may also have some ramifications in the US, where manufacturers
have been unable to develop technology that prevents cell phones from
interfering with hearing aids. I don't have any details about the
technology, so I'm not certain it's applicable to the problem in the US,
but it's certainly worth a look. Here are a couple of key paragraphs
from the article. The full article is available at www.edinburghnews.com/business.cfm?id=862532002.
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HEARING Enhancement, the Livingston-based hearing technology company,
has been appointed by mobile phone giant Vodafone as the first provider
of mobile phone airtime services for deaf people.
Hearing Enhancement is a client company of Adaptive Venture Managers,
the technology incubator headed by Richard Muir-Simpson, and has
developed the PicoLoop and NanoLoop systems, which use tiny induction
loops to transmit signals from a mobile phone to a hearing aid without
interference. They can be used like a standard phone, or used
"hands free".
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May 2005
Editor: You may recall that the FCC requires that some wireless
phones be hearing aid compatible starting later this year. The Alliance
for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) is reporting that
manufacturers "generally will meet the regulatory
requirements", but that some problems exist with GSM phones.
Here's a portion of the press release. Please point your browser to
http://www.atis.org/PRESS/pressreleases2005/051805.htm for the full
release.
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May 18, 2005, Washington - ATIS filed its Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC)
Status Report #3 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Tuesday on behalf of 36 participating industry members of the ATIS HAC
Incubator. The report, submitted in lieu of individual status reports,
details collective inputs on the efforts wireless handset device
manufacturers and service providers are undertaking to comply with the
FCC HAC requirements as listed in the FCC Report and Order
("R&O") 03-168.
The Incubator has performed extensive work and believes that wireless
manufacturers generally will meet the regulatory requirements defined by
the FCC's R&O for two HAC-compliant products per air interface (GSM,
CDMA, iDEN, TDMA) pursuant to the CR63.19 standard by the September 2005
deadline. However, the wireless industry has recently documented several
challenges to achieving FCC-required HAC compatibility measurements for
GSM handset devices operating in the 850 MHz frequency band. This
reported challenge appears to be industry-wide.
Due to numerous variables in hearing aid devices, individuals with
hearing loss, and wireless devices, many carriers allow a "try
before you buy" period that allows a consumer to use a wireless
device for a trial period before making a final purchase.
