Pacific Bell Mobile Services and Ericsson Inc., in conjunction with Self Help for Hard of Hearing People Inc., said they are developing and testing interim solutions to hearing aid interference caused by digital phones.
If accepted by hearing aid users, the modified phones would be available by next January when Pac Bell plans to launch personal communications services. Pac Bell plans to use Global System for Mobile communications technology, which has been cited for causing interference.
“Ericsson and Pac Bell have been working together some time to find a variety of solutions to the interference problem,” said Pac Bell spokesman Lou Saviano. “We don’t think there’s necessarily one silver bullet solution. The hearing aid problem varies from person to person.” Offering only one solution would be like giving all people with vision problems the same pair of glasses, posed Saviano.
Pac Bell’s and Ericsson’s announcement follows controversy raised last week in a San Diego City Council meeting when the California Communications Council, a non-profit group funded by Virginia-based Wireless Communications Council, objected to Pac Bell receiving zoning permits to construct antenna sites for its GSM-based PCS network. The CCC, spirited by WCC founder and Code Division Multiple Access proponent James Valentine, said GSM is unsafe.
“We’re serious about solving the problem and we said that from the get go,” remarked Saviano. “The efforts of our competitors*…*are to undermine public confidence in our technology and implant questions in people’s minds and distort information. They’re not interested in finding a solution to the problem,” stated Saviano. They just want “to slow us down and buy time for themselves to catch up.”
Ericsson is in various stages of development for alternative designs for GSM and Time Division Multiple Access phones. Adaptation possibilities include adding circuitry into handsets that would work in combination with a specially designed earpiece for the phone; separating the antenna from the handset and connecting it with a cable so the handset can be held next to the ear without interference; adding an audio speaker cup option to Ericsson’s portable hands-free accessory and using antennas that can be adjusted to redirect a source of interference away from the ear. The companies also said they intend to ensure compatibility between Ericsson handsets and existing hearing assistance accessory devices.
Testing for the new phones is scheduled to begin in March at Ericsson’s North Carolina research and design facilities. The companies also said they expect to have proposals for short-term and long-term solutions to hearing aid interference in March.
Pac Bell said it expects to work with other manufactures, and Ericsson said it anticipates working with other service providers to develop hearing aid interference solutions. “We’re working on ways to stop interference with the industry,” said Mike Walker, Ericsson vice president of marketing operations. Ericsson will share information on solutions as they are developed, he said, but “the execution of those solutions would be proprietary … the device itself would be proprietary*…*and may be licensed later,” Walker added.
