In a world of ubiquitous multimedia connectivity with Snapchat, Twitter, Skype - pick your favorite communication app - most people take access to communication services for granted. In fact, universal service - the principle that all consumers should have access to communications services - was first publicly proclaimed in 1907 by AT&T’s then president, and made law in the US with the Communications Act in 1934. Unfortunately for millions of hearing impaired consumers, this concept was not realized until the mid 1960s. In 1964 Ma Bell’s PSTN added a second sense with the introduction of Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf (TDDs).
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