Federal Communications Commission FCC 08-68
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN
Re:  Amendment of the Commission’s Rules Governing Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile 
Handsets; Section 68.4(a) of the Commission’s Rules Governing Hearing Aid Compatible 
Telephones; Petition of American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards 
Committee C63 (EMC)ANSI ASC C63®; WT Docket No. 07-250.
I support today’s Report and Order because it makes great advances towards improving 
the access to digital mobile wireless phones by those Americans who use hearing aids.  It 
is essential that the rights of those with hearing impairments always remain in the 
forefront of our decisions, so I’m pleased that we have taken to heart our obligations to 
address such an important public interest issue. 
In addition to adopting new benchmarks and deadlines through 2011 for hearing aid 
compatible handsets, it is significant that we also adopt today a new product refresh 
requirement for manufacturers, as well as a requirement for differing handset 
functionality levels for service providers.  Together, these requirements will greatly 
improve the accessibility to and available options for digital wireless telecommunications 
by those with hearing impairments. 
I would like to thank the extraordinary efforts of the hearing aid community, consumer 
advocacy groups and those in industry that worked diligently to develop the 
recommendations in the Joint Consensus Plan – the recommendations from which we 
formulated core aspects of our order.   I am also pleased that we have incorporated a 
further review of our hearing aid requirements in the second half of 2010, and I look 
forward to tracking the progress of our decision and its positive impact on the hearing 
impaired community over the upcoming years.