Access to HAC Phones Must Be in Balance With Other Public Interest Tenets, ASTAC Says
If manufacturers don't start producing hearing aid compatible phones costing less than $100, it's likely cost would exclude some Lifeline recipients from using the wireless option, said the Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative in a letter to the FCC in…
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docket 15-285. ASTAC is the incumbent LEC serving the North Slope region of Alaska. Mandating a 100 percent HAC requirement on small carriers that lack the ability to influence manufacturers will decrease the choice for ASTAC members who are nonhearing impaired, removing five popular wireless phones from the lineup, the co-op said. Reducing the choice for those consumers makes the small carrier less able to compete on a variety versus "latest and greatest" basis, ASTAC said. The ILEC suggests the FCC change the de minimis exception for providers from a metric of two or fewer devices offered to a more realistic metric of total revenue from sales of wireless phones.