FCC Ruling to Make Cellular Phones Hearing Aid Compatible Leads Cellular Phone Companies to Search for Breakthrough Technology.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2003

Able Planet's Micro-Technology(TM) Provides Hearing Access

Solutions for Companies to Comply with Ruling

Today's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order requiring the cellular telephone industry to make cellular phones hearing aid compatible will lead the industry to search for breakthrough technology to ensure compliance.

Jo Waldron was brought in by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) President and CEO, Tom Wheeler, and worked for the past eight years with Wheeler and former FCC Chairmen Reed Hunt and William Kennard and their respective FCC Commissioners, to address cellular phone industry issues relating to hearing aid compatibility. Waldron and Dr. Joan Burleigh, who last month launched their Able Planet Micro-Technology(TM), said that "the new technology will provide immediate and cost effective hearing access solutions for the cellular phone industry to comply with the FCC ruling."

"We applaud today's FCC ruling and are proud to announce that we have invented a technology to provide solutions for cellular phone companies to comply with the ruling," said Waldron, who has worked with numerous Presidents' administrations and corporations worldwide on hearing aid compatibility and equal access issues. "The Able Planet Micro-Technology(TM) is installed in the hands-free set used with cellular phones and provides people with various levels of hearing loss the opportunity to effectively communicate and hear speech more clearly."

Waldron's and Burleigh's company, Able Planet, Inc., whose mission is to create technology that will provide equal access and opportunity for all people, last month launched the Able Planet Micro-Technology(TM) which will allow corporations in the cellular telephone industry the ability to provide the 34+ million Americans and over 560 million individuals worldwide with mild to severe-to-profound hearing loss the opportunity to effectively communicate with others via telephone and hands-free sets used with cellular phones, as well as hear speech more clearly using earphones, headsets and other communications devices.

CTIA chairman Tom Wheeler commented on Waldron's technology launch: "You have been a leader in bringing technology to hearing-impaired Americans. This is an important step forward and we salute your initiative and your abilities."

"From cellular and wireline phone companies to hospitality, computer, commercial, and hearing instrument sectors, we are currently in talks with corporations worldwide who want this technology," said Waldron. "Able Planet's leading-edge technology will allow all companies to comply with FCC rulings as well as enhance their labor pool, provide equal access to customers and employees and provide better customer service."

The FCC ruling today voted to require some digital mobile phones to be compatible with hearing aids under a phased-in approach calling for industry compliance by early 2008 to make one-half of all handsets accessible to the nation's six million individuals with hearing aids. National wireless carriers will have to make at least two handset models or 25 percent of all handsets hearing aid compatible within two years. Companies must also meet federally mandated compliance directives under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Telecommunications for the Disabled Act of 1982, the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The patent-pending technology was invented this past year by Waldron with technical guidance and testing by hearing industry veteran Dr. Joan Burleigh.

"Millions of people do not have access to voice telecommunication or communications devices making it difficult and oftentimes impossible to use a cellular telephone, use a telephone on the job or in a hotel room, to call 911 in an emergency, or use a headset to hear a computer," said Jo Waldron, who was honored by President Ronald Reagan with "The President's Trophy" and was appointed Disabled American for the Nation, representing the Presidents of the United States and all Americans with disabilities since 1987.

People with disabilities and the nation's elderly control 60 percent of U.S. disposable income, representing almost $800 billion dollars of annual income (U.S. Dept. of Census, 1991). In 2002, the mobile sector generated more than $76 billion in revenues (FCC, eighth annual wireless competition report).

"This population and their family members represent a sizeable revenue stream which every corporation should want to participate in," said Waldron.

In the hospitality industry, Hyatt Hotel Corporation voluntarily last month announced it would place Able Planet's technology in all of its hotels in North America. Teledex LLC, the leading worldwide provider of telephones for the hospitality industry, is working with Hyatt and other worldwide hotels to install the Able Planet technology.

"Companies can use Able Planet's micro-technology to meet federal compliance standards while removing barriers to productivity at all levels around the planet," said Waldron, who spent 11 years as a powerful civilian force in the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "Our technology is tiny, adaptable and inexpensive, thus providing the ability to close the gap between the hearing and people with hearing loss."

On February 1, 2001, President George W. Bush announced his Freedom Initiative on Disability, earmarking over $1 billion to expand research in assistive and universally designed technology, to further integrate Americans with disabilities into the workforce and to remove barriers that limit full participation in community life. On February 12, 2003, President Bush stated, "My New Freedom Initiative strives to provide people with disabilities increased opportunities to lead more independent lives by expanding education and job opportunities, and by ensuring that the latest technologies, which often make education and employment possible, are readily available."

Able Planet is currently working with market sectors such as wire line and wireless telecommunications, public accommodation telecommunications, computer/network services, public/environmental communications, hearing aid/assisting devices, federal, state and local municipalities and retail/equal opportunity employers.

About the Technology

Able Planet's technology measures just 1mm, small enough to fit easily inside a standard telephone handset or hands-free sets such as those used for cellular phones, cordless phones, multi-media computers and laptops, MP3 players, CD players, stereos, and more. Once installed, the Able Planet technology is transparent; those who do not use a hearing aid are not aware of its presence. People with or without hearing loss can use the same phone or hands-free system. Those who do use a hearing aid can take advantage of the technology by simply flipping the switch on their hearing aid to the "T" setting and adjusting the volume on their hearing aid.

To date, traditional technologies have attempted to improve speech understanding by using hearing aid compatible (HAC) headsets, magnetic open-air induction coils, ear silhouettes, volume controls, or neck loops. The result is often the same: volume may be increased, but clarity is not greatly improved. Able Planet's device instead creates audio within a hearing aid and an electronic device such as a phone or headset. Studies have shown that Able Planet's micro-technology improves the overall frequency response levels of telephones, resulting in improved sound clarity. Thus, speech is amplified, clarity is increased and the audio signal is enhanced.

The technology is available for commercial sale to OEMs for $3.10 MSRP (rates may vary based on quantity) and is available for retail sale to corporations, non-profits, government, audiologists, or consumers in a standard telephone for an introductory price of $65.95 and a hands-free headset for $34.95. Products may be purchased at www.ableplanet.com.