Continuous Channel Use on Shared Channels
The FCC issued multiple Notices of Violation to United Independent Taxi Drivers, Los Angeles, California, after observing “nearly continuous” transmissions on shared use channels, and for that the licensee was observed to be transmitting “nearly continuously,” and for no evidence of monitoring for co-channel traffic on non-exclusive 450 MHz frequencies. The Notice also stated that the systems were not properly providing station identification.
Category: Enforcement CornerLicenses Must Match Actual Operations
The City of Magee, Mississippi received a Notice of Violation for operating their transmitter at an unauthorized location and for transmitting digital signals, yet their license permitted only analog operations. The FCC provided twenty days to respond to the violation.
As a result of operating an output power at 143 watts, which exceeded the licensed authorized power of 110 watts, the City of Buckley, Washington, received a Notice of Violation and was provided twenty days to respond.
Come In Pluto
In a story that the National Inquirer should have covered, Nathaniel Johnson, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was operating his CB transmitter – yes, his Citizens Band radio – at all hours of the night causing interference to his neighbors’ TV reception. After repeated warnings from the Commission to cease operations during an FCC imposed period of time between 8:00 a.m. and 11:30 p.m., referred to by the FCC as the “Quiet Hours”, and for failing to allow repeatedly the inspection of his CB operations, the FCC fined Mr. Johnson $18,000. EWA surmises that men dressed in black suits will be by shortly to collect the fine.
Category: Enforcement CornerA Potential LightSquared Spectrum Solution
The FCC has granted LightSquared a waiver to assess the technical feasibility of sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band with Federal users that would require the relocation of incumbent meteorological operations. The FCC seems to favor finding a solution that will allow LightSquared’s spectrum to be repurposed for terrestrial broadband use by creating a different band pairing, one that will avoid GPS interference issues.
Category: In the newsRevisit Mobile Only System Rules
The FCC recently announced that frequency advisory committees are to recognize the authorized mobile area of operation in mobile only systems, as that system’s service and interfering contour for purposes of exclusive use channel analyses. Viewed by some as an extremely liberal level of protection for such systems, the LMCC has requested a meeting with representatives from the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications (WTB) and Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) representatives to discuss the potential for alternative approaches.
Category: In the newsConstruction Requirements
In an effort to ensure that the FCC does not create a precedent that we will all regret later, in a license assignment matter between MC/LM and Choctaw Holdings, EWA filed comments cautioning the FCC to consider carefully whether it should include in the assignment, a waiver that would permit the inclusion of site-based licenses that were alleged not to have been timely constructed, or as to which service had been permanently discontinued. EWA stated that while a waiver might promote administrative efficiency vis-à-vis the MC/LM Hearing, it might not serve the broader public interest of enforcing construction and stations discontinuance rules. filed comments
Category: EWA On Your SideEWA Suggests that the FCC Revisit Signal Booster Registration
The FCC’s adopted signal booster registration rules would be acceptable if signal boosters were an emerging technology and if there was no material difference between consumer and industrial strength services, but that’s not the case. Therefore, in an effort to assist its major business enterprise members who depend on signal boosters, perhaps across the country, EWA requested that the FCC modify its rules to establish a uniform deadline for registering all Consumer and Part 90 Class B Signal Boosters in operation as of February 20, 2013, the date of the FCC’s Order. Further, EWA requested that the FCC clarify what registration information is required for embedded signal boosters in those two categories, and to provide an online database of already certified devices that meet the Consumer Signal Booster Network Protection Standard specified in FCC Rule Section 20.21(e).
Category: EWA On Your SideLMCC – T-Band Freeze a “Disaster”
The Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) also participated in defending the use of T-Band with special attention focused on the disastrous effects of the current application freeze by highlighting the specific impact on various entities. Special thanks to EWA members David Terman, Highland Wireless Services, and to John Mazza, Atlantic Telecommunications who contributed testimonials that were included within these comments. LMCC filed comments
Category: EWA On Your SideIn Defense of T-Band
We are sure that the industry’s message to the FCC was near unanimous, namely, that T-Band is an incredible spectrum resource that is used extensively by both public safety and non-public safety entities, and that the legislation instructing the FCC to take away public safety’s T-Band use is an incredibly flawed telecom policy. There will never be enough money to subsidize the relocation of incumbent operations, and there will not be sufficient comparable spectrum to house T-Band refugees. Everyone recognizes that the FCC is not accountable for this spectrum debacle and is just following orders. But the FCC is absolutely accountable for the implementation and timing of the T-Band application freeze that has created incredible economic hardship on incumbent licensees, customers that are served by local commercial carriers and the public that benefits from the communications systems deployed within the affected eleven markets.
In comments filed, EWA stated that the agency should limit its activities to implementing the statutory directive to auction public safety frequencies in the band (unless all Congressional mandates regarding T-Band spectrum are reversed, as EWA argues they should be). EWA also urged the Commission to lift the T-Band freeze immediately and not to re-impose it until the last reasonable time before the spectrum landscape must be stabilized prior to auction. Freezing the band years before an auction may be held, as the FCC did, improperly attaches a higher public interest to the economic interests of unknown future auction participants than to the ongoing communications requirements of Part 90 licensees of T-Band spectrum. EWA Comments
Category: EWA On Your Side