Southern Linc Gets Hearing Aid Waiver
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver of its hearing aid compatibility rules for Southern Linc. In a December petition for a limited waiver, the carrier said despite best efforts, and circumstances beyond its control, it has been able to…
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offer to the public only one hearing aid-compatible handset model over the iDEN air interface, which isn't "T-rated" for inductive coupling capability, the bureau said in the Tuesday order in docket 07-250. Southern Linc acknowledged it wasn't in compliance with FCC inductive coupling benchmarks. “It would be unduly burdensome for it to offer iDEN handsets rated T3 or higher, and Southern Linc has shown that it has no reasonable sourcing channels to procure T-rated hearing aid-compatible handsets until it can transition completely to its LTE network,” the bureau said. “It would not serve the underlying purpose of the hearing aid compatibility rules for Southern Linc to comply with the rules by discontinuing the offering of all handsets to the public because it is not able to obtain any T-rated hearing aid-compatible handset models.”