Design, Labeling, and Use Mandates

ACCESSIBLE TECHNOLOGY MANDATES

CEA supports industry-driven solutions to ensure innovative technologies and services are accessible to disabled consumers. CEA is actively engaged on implementation of the 21st Century Communication and Video Act of 2010. 

  • April 1, 2013 - The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee has been re-chartered with Julie Kearney selected to represent CEA and our members. The Committee was established in November 2000 to make recommendations to the Commission regarding consumer issues within the jurisdiction of the Commission and to facilitate the participation of consumers (including people with disabilities and underserved populations, such as Native Americans and persons living in rural areas) in proceedings before the Commission.
  • January 29, 2013 - The FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau released a Public Notice  reminding service providers and equipment manufacturers that are subject to the FCC’s accessibility rules regarding their accessibility recordkeeping obligations and the annual recordkeeping certification requirement. In addition, the Public Notice announces the establishment of the Recordkeeping Compliance Certification and Contact Information Registry.
  • January 2013 - On December 8, 2012 and January 7, 2013, CEA filed comments and reply comments pertaining to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Accessible Emergency Information, and Apparatus Requirements for Emergency Information and Video Description: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. In its comments and replies, CEA urged the Commission that the CVAA limits the scope of the new apparatus rules. As such, CEA supported the Commission’s proposal to limit the scope of the apparatus requirements for emergency information and video description to devices that make available the type of programming that is subject to the current rules – devices designed to receive, play back, or record television broadcast services or MVPD services, consistent with CVAA. CEA further urged the Commission to avoid adopting inflexible technical rules and pointed out that the compliance deadline for the apparatus requirements for emergency information and video description should apply to devices based on the date of manufacture.

CELL PHONE USE ON COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS

CEA opposes any permanent statutory ban on voice communications (including SMS and data services) on commercial flights. CEA believes that instead of an outright ban, the Federal Aviation Administration should retain rulemaking authority over this issue.

  • January 2013 - CEA’s Doug Johnson was appointed to serve on the Federal Aviation Administration’s new Portable Electronic Devices Aviation Rulemaking Committee (PED ARC). Also serving on the committee are representatives of airlines, pilots, flight attendants, electronics and avionics manufactures, as well as representatives from the FAA, FCC and TSA. The PED ARC will review and analyze the comments received from the FAA’s notice last fall regarding the use of PEDs on board aircraft. The PED ARC will then develop recommendations and submit them to the FAA Administrator through the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety. The PED ARC is tasked to make recommendations by July 2013 considering expansion of PED use while maintaining the highest levels of safety for the passengers and without compromising the continued safe operation of the aircraft.

 

PROPOSED FM TUNER MANDATE

CEA is strongly opposed to legislation mandating the inclusion of FM tuner in mobile devices, whether as a part of a compromise between broadcasters and the content industry regarding performance royalties or as a stand-alone bill.CEA believes that such a mandate would result in higher costs for consumers, less functionality, and diminished mobile device battery life. An FM tuner mandate was considered and rejected advisory group consisting of representatives from the FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency and public safety organizations during the implementation of the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act (enacted as part of P.L. 109-347) in 2006.

CELL PHONE LABELLING

CEA opposes cell phone labeling requirements since all phones sold legally in the U.S. already must comply with the FCC’s safety limits for radiofrequency (RF) emissions exposure. The FCC worked with federal health and safety agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration, to set these limits. CEA is also concerned that labeling requirements could cause confusion and create an illusion that some compliant phones are in some way “safer” than other compliant phones based on RF emissions, when any phone below this objective level is considered safe.