Maintaining Records
Curran Communications, Inc., licensee of AM Station WPAM in Pottsville, Pennsylvania received a Notice of Violation for a string of violations which included failure to have all the records of its Emergency Alert System logs; performance measurements available at the time of inspection; and to maintain a station log which accurately reflects the station’s operations.
Category: Enforcement CornerSpectrum Efficiency Workshop Announced
The FCC will hold a Public Workshop on “Spectrum Efficiency and Receiver Performance” to be held on March 12-13, citing that ”New approaches to spectrum management focusing on spectrum efficiency and receiver performance may enable more assured deployment of new services and reduce the necessity for the involvement of regulators.” Public Notice
Category: In the newsAn Abundance of Caution
We understand that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is on circulation at the FCC that would seek comment on Sprint Nextel’s Petition for Declaratory Ruling asking the FCC to confirm the permissibility of deploying CDMA technologies in the 800 MHz ESMR band. It may be that out of an abundance of caution given its recent LightSquared and earlier 800 MHz public safety interference issues that led to the rebanding initiative, that the FCC wants to gather more information regarding any potential technical issues before deciding this matter. Of interest, however, the ability to use broadband technologies on this spectrum arguably was considered and approved by the Commission as far back as 1995 and again in 2004.
Category: In the newsMore Bad News for LightSquared
An FCC statement announced that, in response to NTIA’s letter concluding that there was no practical way to mitigate potential interference from LightSquared’s terrestrial operations to federal use of GPS, the FCC announced that it will not lift its prohibition against LightSquared commencing commercial operation. The next day, the FCC issued a Public Notice inviting comment on the NTIA’s letter, stating:
The NTIA Letter supplements the record established in this docket to date regarding the likelihood of interference from LightSquared’s planned terrestrial operations to GPS receivers and devices. These materials indicate that it is highly unlikely that LightSquared will, in any reasonable period of time, be able to satisfy the requirements of the Conditional Waiver Order for providing commercial ATC service in the 1525-1559 MHz band. In addition, although the GPS community raised overload interference issues in connection with the 2011 Conditional Waiver Order, the interference addressed by the NTIA Letter is associated with LightSquared’s planned terrestrial base stations rather than the mobile handsets at issue in the Conditional Waiver Order. Thus, the test results stated in the NTIA Letter appear to apply to the full LightSquared ATC service authorized in 2004 and 2010. In these circumstances, we propose the following actions; vacate the Conditional Waiver Order, which is currently the subject of petitions for reconsideration, due to LightSquared’s inability to address satisfactorily the legitimate interference concerns surrounding its planned terrestrial operations; and modify LightSquared’s satellite license pursuant to Section 316 of the Communications Act to suspend indefinitely LightSquared’s underlying ATC authorization, first granted in 2004, to an extent consistent with the NTIA Letter.
EWA Cited Often in State of Maine Spectrum Quest
The State of Maine, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), and a number of short-line railroads that operate in or near Maine have filed reply comments that variously reference EWA’s Comments. The State repeated its position that AAR had not demonstrated that Maine’s proposed operation would cause interference to specific existing or prospective railroads, and cited EWA’s Comments as support for the waiver relief it had requested. In doing so, however, Maine did not address EWA’s suggestion that consideration be given to the use of shared frequencies for certain applications. AAR maintained its position that the State’s system is “over-engineered,” that every single railroad frequency in question is urgently required for rail operations, and that Maine’s proposed use would cause intolerable interference. No information, however, was provided by AAR as to which specific rail facilities would experience such intolerable interference. The short-line railways echoed AAR’s position and concerns. AAR also claimed that EWA’s position in this proceeding was contrary to its arguments in the Shelby County matter, a claim that is not consistent with EWA’s pleadings in the two matters.
State of Maine Reply Comments AAR Reply Comments
Category: In the newsPresident Signs Spectrum Reform Legislation
The President’s signature means H.R. 3630 is now law with multiple future spectrum use implications for a number of industries. First, it reallocates the 700 MHz D Block from commercial use to public safety to be combined with the existing public safety 700 MHz broadband spectrum. This 20 MHz of spectrum will be managed by the First Responder Network Authority (FRNA), a to-be-established independent authority within NTIA with a Board comprised of governmental and business representatives. A total of $7 billion will be dedicated to fund deployment and operation of the nationwide public safety broadband network. Under the law, the FRNA must seek private sector proposals to build, operate and maintain the network.
In conjunction with reallocation of the D Block for public safety use, the legislation specifies that not later than nine years after enactment (or by February 22, 2021), the FCC shall “reallocate the spectrum in the 470-512 MHz band (referred to in this section as the ‘T-band spectrum’) currently used by public safety eligibles as identified in section 90.303” and auction this spectrum. It states that the auction proceeds will be available for NTIA to make grants to cover public safety relocation costs. The impact of the legislation on the non-public safety users of T-band spectrum is not yet clear.
The FCC was also provided authority to conduct incentive auctions, which means licensees may be “encouraged” to relinquish their licenses in return for some portion of the auction proceeds. A reverse auction will be used to solicit a price from full-power and Class A TV licensees at which they will relinquish their spectrum to be auctioned for broadband use.
A number of federal government bands will be cleared for reallocation and, ultimately, auctioned for broadband use.
EWA Responds to ATS Waiver Request
On February 22, EWA filed comments in response to American Time & Signal Company’s (ATS) waiver request to permit the licensing of 20-40 watt base stations on certain 450-470 MHz channels that manage clock systems on educational and industrial campuses as mobile only systems under an MO6 (private carrier) authorization held by ATS. Each installation would use the coordinates of the system controller to define service areas with its radius determined by the controller’s power level.
In its comments, EWA stated that grant of the waiver relief requested could potentially undermine the carefully calibrated coordination and licensing structures that enable a multiplicity of system users, architectures and technologies to share the very limited Part 90 spectrum. Rather than waive the rules to accommodate the technical parameters ATS has chosen for its products and customer operations, it would seem a better solution for ATS to conform those operations to the existing Part 90 licensing requirements or modify its products to operate in alternative spectrum.
Delta Airlines Requests Narrowbanding Waiver
In response to a narrowbanding waiver request filed by Delta Airlines, the WTB filed a Public Notice requesting comment. Delta has completed narrowbanding some facilities and requested a one year extension to complete the process at an additional 120 airports. EWA intends to file comments supporting Delta’s request.
Category:Conditional Waivers Granted on Narrowband Deadline
The PSHSB granted a conditional waiver of the January 1, 2013, narrowbanding deadline to a group of public safety entities in the St. Louis, Missouri area. The agencies plan to consolidate into a multi-county interoperable 800 MHz system and requested an additional year to complete the project. Upon deployment of the new system, they promised to relinquish the channels that were subject to narrowbanding. The FCC found that the parties had satisfied the FCC’s waiver requirements for such requests, but conditioned the waiver on (1) an identification of which licenses and/or frequencies would be surrendered and (2) written confirmation from each of the participating entities that they consented to the conditions in the Order.
The WTB and PSHSB issued a further Public Notice, showing the information required from the St. Louis parties when multiple parties were involved in a joint waiver request and/or when a party or parties commit to surrender spectrum subject to narrowbanding after migrating to a different band, as applicable.