STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
Re: Revisions to Reporting Requirements Governing Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile 
Handsets, WT Docket No. 17-228
Today, we seek to help small wireless providers put their resources where it matters 
most—towards investment and innovation that benefits their customers, instead of bureaucratic 
red tape.  
With today’s action, we aim to streamline our current hearing aid compatibility (HAC) 
deployment and compliance reporting requirements. Those rules require annual reporting, 
regardless of the size of the provider or whether that provider is subject to other HAC 
obligations.  Numerous details are demanded, including which handsets the provider has made 
available to consumers since the last report that are and are not hearing-aid compatible, the 
frequencies over which those handsets operate, how many months the handsets have been 
available, and the status of product labeling and outreach efforts.
We’ve heard concerns, particularly from many small providers, about the burdens that 
creating these annual reports pose, such as the time and cost required.  That’s why we’re 
exploring whether the benefits of requiring all providers to comply with the Commission’s 
reporting requirements still outweigh the costs. Exempting small providers from the annual 
reporting obligations and possibly streamlining the reporting mechanisms for other carriers may
relieve these burdens without affecting the Commission’s ability to effectively monitor the 
overall status of HAC handset availability.
It’s important to note that we are not changing the obligations of manufacturers and 
operators to provide hearing aid-compatible devices.  The FCC would continue to monitor 
compliance with our HAC rules to ensure consumers have access to compatible devices.  All we
would be doing by simplifying our HAC compliance reporting efforts is helping small providers
shift resources from unnecessary reporting to better services for their customers.
As always, a big thank you to the staff that worked on this item: Charles Eberle, Ne?e 
Guendelsberger, Garnet Hanly, Eli Johnson, Aalok Mehta, Michael Rowan, Michael C. Smith, 
Cecilia Sulhoff, Peter Trachtenberg, and Weiren Wang from the Wireless Telecommunications 
Bureau; Robert Aldrich, Susan Bahr, Eliot Greenwald, Suzanne Singleton, and Karen Peltz 
Strauss from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau; Pamera Hairston, Jeremy Marcus, 
and Aspasia Paroutsas from the Enforcement Bureau; and Deborah Broderson, David Horowitz, 
Linda Oliver, Bill Richardson, and Anjali Singh from the Office of General Counsel.