Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH) endorsed T-Mobile’s request for a 60-day extension of a Sept. 16 deadline for offering hearing aid compatibility (HAC) handsets. But SHHH urged the FCC to require the carrier to hew partially to the deadline by rolling out 2 handsets found HAC-compliant, granting the waiver for 2 models that unexpectedly failed the HAC test. The FCC in June required Tier I carriers to offer 4 HAC-compliant handset models for each air interface, or 25% of all models, by Sept. 16. T-Mobile said last week (CD Aug 30 p10) that 2 of 4 1900 MHz band handsets expected, based on preliminary data, to meet the U3 rating had failed. “This is the 2nd surprise related to testing performed according to the ANSI C63.19 standard that has led to a request for a waiver of the HAC rules, the first being Cingular’s,” SHHH Assoc. Exec. Dir. Brenda Battat said. Earlier this month Cingular -- the largest GSM carrier -- sought a waiver of FCC HAC rules in the 850 MHz band. T-Mobile and Cingular are the only 2 national GSM carriers. Speaking for hearing-impaired persons, SHHH called T-Mobile’s 60-day extension request “reasonable.” But SHHH said it “disagrees” with T-Mobile’s proposal to wait until it has all 4 handset models inventoried and all collateral materials in place before rolling out compliant handsets. “Even though we recognize that rolling out 2 models followed later by 2 more models might make distribution more complicated, consumers will at least have 2 models of phones to select from by the deadline rather than none and that is in the public interest,” SHHH said. SHHH and the Hearing Industries Assn. (HIA), a hearing aid manufacturers’ group, urged the FCC to hold manufacturers accountable, and at least require them to report on progress toward compliance. SHHH backs T-Mobile’s and Cingular’s waiver requests because “we see they have been caught… It appears that the carriers have very little leverage with their vendors in getting what the law requires,” the group said. HIA urged the FCC to scrutinize the waiver requests. The agency should “call in the manufacturers of GSM handsets to find out first- hand whether they have been diligent in redesigning their products to comply with the HAC rules,” HIA said. Meanwhile, ATIS urged the FCC to adopt its proposals for addressing challenges affecting wireless devices operating below 960 MHz (low band). Long term, ATIS said, there’s “a need to establish a dedicated RF emission measurement limit for low band.” There’s “no discernable difference in user experience between M1/M2-rated low band wireless devices and M3/M4-rated high band (above 960 MHz) wireless devices,” ATIS said. Short term, ATIS urged the FCC to: (1) Accept the high band HAC rating as the overall rating for all GSM dual band wireless devices. (2) Clarify C63.19-2005 so “the reference to ‘peak power’ actually refers to ‘average peak power during the transmit interval,’ which is more predictive of hearing aid usability.” The recommendations were backed by the full HAC Incubator at its Aug. 23 meeting. Participants included Cingular, LGE, Motorola, NEC America, Nextel, Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Ad spending first half rose 5.7% from a year earlier, due to gains across major media, Nielsen Monitor Plus preliminary figures showed. Ad spending grew across all media reported, led by Spanish-language TV, cable TV and the Internet. Spending on newspapers, coupons, top 100 spot TV markets and network radio hasn’t shown as much growth, Nielsen said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty administrative reviews:

Adult website publisher Perfect 10 filed late Wed. for a preliminary injunction against Google, charging copyright infringement of its images in search results. Perfect 10’s last suit against a search engine hit Amazon.com’s A9 (WID July 5 p1); the company originally sued Google in Nov. (WID Nov 26/04 p3) and unsuccessfully sued Visa and Mastercard on charges of “contributory and vicarious” infringement for business with rivals alleged to infringe (WID Nov 17/04 p2). Google continues to display over 3,000 Perfect 10 copyrighted images, despite 35 notices from Perfect 10 covering 6,500 infringing URLs, the firm said. “Google’s extraordinary gain in market cap… is more due to their massive misappropriation of intellectual property than anything else,” founder Norm Zada said. He added that “as many as 96%” of Google search results for Perfect 10 go to AdSense partners infringing Perfect 10 images.

SeaChange International said cable operator spending on VoD has slowed, as the company’s quarterly sales fell 39%. Revenue was $26.2 million in the 2nd quarter ended July 31, according to preliminary financial results. SeaChange had a $3.3 million loss, compared with a year- earlier profit. Along with less cable VoD spending, SeaChange CEO William Styslinger said telecom “VOD deployments are later than we anticipated.” SeaChange stock fell 15%. Customers include Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has made a preliminary affirmative antidumping (AD) duty determination that certain orange juice from Brazil is being, or is likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.

The proposed merger of Brillian and Syntax shelved Syntax IPO plans and broadened the firms’ strategies for competing in the TV market, according to documents filed with the SEC. In the spring, as Brillian was weighing financing options with investment banking firms, Syntax was starting preliminary work on an IPO. C.E. Unterberg Towbin, which was working with both firms, pulled them together. Discussions began in May, Brillian said. A definitive merger agreement was reached July 12.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the changed circumstances antidumping (AD) duty review of certain softwood lumber products from Canada.

The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has posted to its web site updated official textile and apparel import data from the Department of Census for June 2005.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice stating that it is postponing until no later than October 7, 2005 (from September 8, 2005) the preliminary antidumping (AD) duty determination on certain artist canvas from China.