98-12606. Waiver of Business and Industrial/Land Transportation Channel Construction Requirements

[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 91 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26188-26189]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-12606]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[DA 98-808]


Waiver of Business and Industrial/Land Transportation Channel 
Construction Requirements

    1. On February 20, 1998, Southern Company (Southern) filed a 
Request for Waiver of Section 90.629 of the Commission's Rules to 
further extend the extended implementation period for its Business and 
Industrial Land Transportation (I/LT) Category channels that Southern 
has converted to commercial use. Southern, an electric utility holding 
company, operates an 800 MHz Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) system on 
Business and I/LT channels, and on a small number of SMR and General 
Category channels.1 The channels were licensed between 1992 
and 1994, and Southern received a five-year extended implementation 
period. In 1995, Southern, apparently by means of intercategory 
sharing, converted the Business and I/LT channels to commercial use. It 
has constructed and placed in operation all of the base stations, and 
sixty-five percent of the channels, for which it is licensed. Southern 
seeks to extend the implementation period for its Business and I/LT 
channels, which expires on May 20, 1999, for an additional five years 
or until the Commission auctions those channels, whichever is sooner.
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    \1\ Pursuant to the recently completed auction of licenses for 
the upper 200 channels of the SMR Service in the 800 MHz band, on 
March 9, 1998, Southern was conditionally granted licenses for 
frequency block A in BEAs 74, 75, and 78-82. See FCC Announces the 
Corrected Conditional Grant of 800 MHz SMR Licenses, Public Notice 
No. DA 98-482 (released March 10, 1998).
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    2. In its Request for Waiver, Southern asserts that a further 
extension of the implementation period is necessary because the current 
implementation period is unduly burdensome, frustrates the purpose of 
our rules, and is contrary

[[Page 26189]]

to the public interest. Southern's system, which has a service area of 
over 120,000 square miles in the southeastern United States, provides 
internal communications for Southern's operating companies and provides 
service to a large external customer base, including public utilities, 
federal, state, and local governments, and emergency management 
agencies, such as sheriffs' departments and ambulance services. The 
system provides voice dispatch service, full-duplex telephone 
interconnection, short message service (similar to alphanumeric 
paging), and data transmission capabilities. Southern states that the 
continued operation of its system is necessary to maintain competition 
in the urban dispatch service market, and to maintain dispatch and 
telephone interconnection service in rural areas. It also states that 
it is at a severe disadvantage with respect to other Commercial Mobile 
Radio Service (CMRS) providers because the subsequently-adopted CMRS 
construction requirement based on channel usage and population coverage 
is more flexible than the requirement for Business and I/LT channels.
    3. We also note that on April 22, 1998, the Land Mobile 
Communications Council filed a Petition for Rule Making regarding the 
allocation of spectrum for the Private Mobile Radio Services. We 
anticipate that the Commission will resolve the matters raised therein 
in another proceeding, but we invite comments on how the LMCC Petition 
and the Southern waiver request relate to issues the Commission is 
likely to consider with regard to implementation of the Balanced Budget 
Act of 1997 (the Act). The Act, which mandates that most mutually 
exclusive license applications be resolved by competitive bidding, 
gives rise to such issues as whether geographic area licensing for 
Business and I/LT channels serves the public interest, how to define 
bidder eligibility for auctions held to award mutually exclusive 
licenses for these channels, how to define the class of land mobile 
licensee that is exempt from licensing by auction, and whether the 
existence of the Southern Request for Waiver and a number of other 
applications requesting large numbers of channels in the I/LT and 
Business Categories should be considered when developing rules for 
future licensing of these channels.2
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    \2\ The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has pending before it 
a number of applications filed by single users for large numbers of 
800 MHz I/LT and Business channels. The applicants' individual 
communications requirements do not appear sufficient to require such 
large numbers of channels. The Bureau continues to maintain these 
applications in pending status until the Act is fully implemented.
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    4. Interested parties may file comments on Southern's Request for 
Waiver on or before May 28, 1998. Parties interested in submitting 
reply comments must do so on or before June 12, 1998. All comments 
should reference Southern's Request for Waiver with the designated DA 
number, and should be filed with the Office of the Secretary, Federal 
Communications Commission, 1919 M St., N.W., Room 222, Washington, D.C. 
20554. A copy of each filing should be sent to International 
Transcription Services, Inc. (ITS), 1231 20th St., N.W., Washington, 
D.C. 20036, [phone], and to Scot Stone, Federal Communications 
Commission, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and 
Private Wireless Division, 2025 M St., N.W., Room 8010G, [phone] 
or via e-mail to [e-mail].
    5. The full text of the Request for Waiver, comments, and reply 
comments are available for public inspection and duplication during 
regular business hours in the Public Safety and Private Wireless 
Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Federal 
Communications Commission, 2025 M St., N.W., Room 8010, Washington, 
D.C. 20554. Copies also may be obtained from ITS, 1231 20th St., N.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20036, [phone].
    6. For further information, contact Scot Stone of the Public Safety 
and Private Wireless Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau 
at [phone] or via e-mail to [e-mail].

Federal Communications Commission.
Rosalind Allen,
Deputy Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
[FR Doc. 98-12606 Filed 5-11-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P