Conformity Magazine- May 2008 - (Page 11) NewsBreaks Epic Touch, a Tier III wireless carrier, was required under the Commission’s 2003 Hearing Aid Compatibility Order to provide subscribers with access to at least two HAC compliant handsets. However, Epic Touch did not offer its first HAC handset until March 2007, and did not offer a second compliant handset model in July 2007. In an August 2007 written response to a Letter of Inquiry from the FCC, the company did not deny its failure to meet the September 2006 deadline, but claimed undue hardship to acquire compliant models from manufacturers due to its small size. However, in its Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, the Commission noted that Epic Touch failed to seek from the FCC a waiver of the September 2006 deadline, and failed to demonstrate good faith in its efforts to come into compliance as soon as possible, especially since other Tier III carriers achieved full compliance with a few months of the regulatory deadline. Our readers can view the complete text of the Commission’s Notice at www.conformity.com/1712. FCC Releases Report on Numbering Resource Utilization The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released its annual report on the utilization of telephone numbers allocated to telecommunications carriers. The Commission requires carriers to regularly report statistics on the telephone numbers that have been allocated to them for phone service subscribers to help ensure the most effective use of available numbers under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). This regular reporting allows for the reallocation of blocks of numbers between carriers when required, and ultimately helps to preserve the current 10-digit numbering scheme despite the rapidly escalating demand for phone numbers. The report compiles data that was received by the FCC through December 31, 2006. Some of the findings include: • Overall, 44.2% of all available telephone numbers have been assigned to end users, up approximately 1% since December 2005; • The utilization rate for Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers declined to 49.3%, from 52.4% at the end of 2005; • The utilization rate for Cellular/PCS Carriers increased from 59.1% to 63.3%; • The practice of “thousands-block polling” has made it unnecessary to distribute about 310 million additional telephone numbers. Our readers can view a summary of the Commission’s Report on telephone number utilization at www.conformity.com/1714. continued on page Testing � � Consulting � Engineering � Training EMC COMPLIANCE TESTING � FCC Seeks Increased Funding for FY 2009 President George W. Bush has submitted to Congress a budget proposal for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for fiscal year 2009, which begins on October 1 of this year. The Commission’s proposed budget is $338.9 million, up 8%, or nearly $26 million, from the amount proposed for the fiscal year 2008. Our readers can view the complete text of the FCC’s proposed budget at www.conformity.com/1713. � � � � FCC Part 15 & 18 CE (Emissions, Immunity & Radio testing) VCCI (Japan) BSMI (Taiwan CNS Standards) Australia/New Zealand (AS/NZS) Korea (KN standards) TELECOMMUNICATIONS TERMINAL EQUIPMENT � � � � FCC Part 68/ACTA Industry Canada Bellcore Europe CSA Testing TUV Testing UL Testing CE (LVD) PRODUCT SAFETY TESTING � � � � MILITARY AND AVIONICS � � FAA (RTCA DO-160) MIL-STD 461/462 MEDICAL � � � Telecommunications Certification Body (TCB) European Conformity Assessment Body for 2004/108/EC FDA CE EN 60601-1-2 JIS T 0601-1-2 NARTE Certified Engineers and Test Technicians Consulting Available Over 25 years of EMC Experience Accredited Test Facilities 4 Locations with 10 OATS & 5 semi-anechoic chambers in Southern California Tel: (714) 579-0500 www.celectronics.com mAy 2008 Conformity 11 http://www.conformity.com/1714 http://www.conformity.com/1712 http://www.conformity.com/1713 http://www.celectronics.com http://www.celectronics.com
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