The FCC’s Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Wireline Competition Bureau, and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau are seeking comment on two related petitions filed by AT&T Services, Inc. Comments are due August 24, 2015, and reply comments are due September 8, 2015. In the first petition, AT&T requests that the FCC open a rulemaking to explore a change to the FCC’s rules requiring support for text telephone (TTY) technology. AT&T proposes that real-time text (RTT) communications replace TTY as the technology of choice for persons who are deaf, hearing impaired, or speech impaired to access newly deployed voice communications. In a second related petition, AT&T requests a temporary waiver of Sections 20.18(c) and 64.603 of the FCC’s rules which require covered service providers to enable 911 and 711 short code dialing using a TTY device.
