STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI Re: Revisions to Reporting Requirements Governing Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile Handsets, WT Docket No. 17-228 In 2003, the Commission adopted rules to require wireless service providers to make more handsets available that were compatible with hearing aids. These regulations achieved their objective, and now far more hearing aid compatible devices are being sold than was the case back then. Today, in light of changes in the marketplace, we’re modernizing our hearing aid compatibility rules. Specifically, we’re improving our hearing aid compatibility reporting requirements to ensure that information is available to consumers in the places they most often go looking for it. We revise our rules to require service providers to post on their websites the most critical information currently submitted on FCC Form 655, an annual report that providers have been required to file with the Commission. This step is broadly supported by the hearing loss community, nationwide, rural, and regional wireless service providers, and handset manufacturers. This revision to our website disclosure rule will enable consumers to obtain the relevant information they need about the availability of hearing aid-compatible devices. It will also allow the Commission to ensure compliance with a minimal burden. Given this new disclosure obligation, we are relieving providers of their annual reporting requirement and replacing it with an annual certification of compliance with the Commission’s hearing aid compatibility rules. Because current reporting requirements will remain in place for device manufacturers, we believe that the rules we adopt today will make it easier for consumers to find the information they need while simultaneously relieving small companies from filling out unnecessary paperwork. Many thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff on this item: Garnet Hanly, Eli Johnson, Jonathan Lechter, Michael Rowan, Becky Schwartz, Dana Shaffer, Suzanne Tetreault, and Weiren Wang of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau; Susan Bahr, Eliot Greenwald, Suzy Rose Singleton, and Karen Peltz Strauss of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau; Pamera Hairston of the Enforcement Bureau; Chana Wilkerson of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities; and Bill Richardson and Anjali Singh of the Office of General Counsel.