47 U.S.C. § 610 — Telephone service for disabled

(a) The Commission must issue rules needed to give people with impaired hearing reasonable access to telephone service. (b) (1) Except for the exemptions and waiver in paragraphs (2) and (3), and subject to subsection (c), the Commission must require covered customer-premises equipment to contain a way to work effectively with hearing aids designed for telephones that meet the established compatibility standards. Covered equipment is: (A) all “essential telephones”; (B) all telephones made in the United States, other than for export, more than one year after August 16, 1988, and all telephones imported for use in the United States more than one year after that date; and (C) all customer-premises equipment used with advanced communications services that provides two-way voice communication through a built-in speaker meant to be held to the ear in a way functionally equivalent to a telephone, subject to subsection (e) rules. (2)(A) The regulations prescribed by the Commission under paragraph (1) shall exempt from the requirements for paragraph (1)(B) and (C) only: (i) telephones used with public mobile services; (ii) telephones used with private radio services; and (iii) “secure telephones.” (B) The Commission must periodically decide whether those exemptions should continue. It must revoke or limit an exemption if it finds that (i) doing so is in the public interest; (ii) continuing the exemption would harm people with hearing loss; (iii) compliance is technologically feasible for the covered telephones; and (iv) compliance would not raise costs so much that the telephones could not be successfully marketed. (3) At an interested person’s request, the Commission may start a proceeding to waive paragraph (1)(B) for new telephones or telephones connected with a new technology or service. It may grant the waiver only if the record shows that the telephones, technology, or service are in the public interest and either (A) compliance is technologically infeasible or (B) compliance would raise costs so much that they could not be successfully marketed. The Commission must consider the effect on people with hearing loss and must periodically review whether the waiver is still needed. (4) For this subsection: (A) “essential telephones” means only coin-operated telephones, telephones provided for emergencies, and other telephones frequently needed by people who use hearing aids. (B) “telephones used with public mobile services” means telephones and other customer-premises equipment used wholly or partly with air-to-ground radiotelephone, cellular radio, offshore radio, rural radio, public land mobile telephone, or other common-carrier radio communication services covered by title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or functionally equivalent unlicensed wireless services. (C) “telephones used with private radio services” means telephones and other customer-premises equipment used wholly or partly with private land mobile radio services and other communications services the Commission calls private radio services in its rules. (D) “secure telephones” means telephones approved by the United States Government to transmit classified or sensitive voice communications. (c) The Commission must establish or approve technical standards needed to enforce this section. Equipment that complies with relevant standards developed through public participation and consultation with interested consumer stakeholders designated by the Commission is considered hearing-aid compatible until the Commission decides otherwise. The Commission must consult the public, including people with hearing loss, when setting or approving standards. It may delegate this authority to an employee under section 155(c) of this title, but it remains the final decision-maker on whether the standards meet this section. (d) The Commission must set packaging-label requirements needed to give consumers enough information about telephone and hearing-aid compatibility. (e) In every rulemaking implementing this section, the Commission must specifically consider costs and benefits for all telephone users, including people with and without hearing loss. Its rules must encourage currently available technology and must not discourage or impair improved technology. When implementing subsection (b)(1)(C), it must use suitable schedules or benchmarks when needed because of technical feasibility or to ensure new technologies can be marketed or made available. (f) The Commission must periodically review its rules. Except for coin-operated and emergency telephones, it may not require equipment to be retrofitted to meet this section. (g) A common carrier or connecting carrier may provide specialized terminal equipment for people whose hearing, speech, vision, or mobility is impaired. A State commission may allow the carrier to recover through tariffs for regulated service the reasonable and prudent costs not charged directly to equipment users. (h) The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 does not change the Commission’s regulations in section 20.19 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as they existed on October 8, 2010.