04-16892. Amendment of the Commission's Rules Concerning Maritime Communications

AGENCY:

Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION:

Correcting amendments.

SUMMARY:

This document contains corrections to the final regulations which were published in the Federal Register of Thursday, July 25, 2002 (67 FR 48560). The regulations related to licensing of Automated Maritime Telecommunication System stations.

DATES:

Effective July 26, 2004.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Scot Stone, Public Safety and Critical Infrastructure Division at [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The final regulations determined that unassigned Automated Maritime Telecommunications System spectrum would be made available for licensing throughout the United States by ten Automated Maritime Telecommunications System Areas (AMTSAs). Each AMTSA consists of one or more of the 174 Economic Areas (EAs) or EA-like areas in International Telecommunication Region 2—i.e., the 172 EAs specified by the Department of Commerce and the Commission-created EA-like areas for Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands (EA 174) and the Gulf of Mexico (EA 176). However, § 80.385(a)(3) of the Commission's Rules did not include a reference to the perimeter of EA 176.

Need for Correction

As published, § 80.385(a)(3) does not refer to the perimeter of EA 176, which may prove to be misleading and needs to be clarified. In addition, the second column of the table in § 80.385(a)(2), as published in the Federal Register was misaligned, beginning with Channel 149, and needs to be corrected.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 80

• Communications equipment
• Radio
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

Federal Communications Commission.

William F. Caton,

Deputy Secretary.

Accordingly, 47 CFR part 80 is corrected by making the following correcting amendments.

PART 80—MARITIME SERVICES

1. The authority citation for part 80 continues to read as follows:

Authority: Secs. 4, 303, 307(e), 309, and 332, 48 Stat. 1066, 1082, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 154, 303, 307(e), 309, and 332, unless otherwise noted. Interpret or apply 48 Stat. 1064-1068, 1081-1105, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 151-155, 301-609; 3 UST 3450, 3 UST 4726, 12 UST 2377.

2. Revise paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(3) of § 80.385 to read as follows:

§ 80.385

Frequencies for automated systems.

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(a) * * *

(2) The following carrier frequencies are available for assignment to public coast stations for public correspondence communications with ship stations and units on land. AMTS operations must not cause harmful interference to the U.S. Navy SPASUR system which operates in the band 216.880-217.080 MHz.

Channel No.	Carrier frequency (MHz)
	Ship transmit 1 3	Coast transmit 2	Group
101		216.0125	D
102		216.0375
103		216.0625
104		216.0875
105		216.1125
106		216.1375
107		216.1625
108		216.1875
109		216.2125
110		216.2375
111		216.2625
112		216.2875
113		216.3125
114		216.3375
115		216.3625
116		216.3875
117		216.4125
118		216.4375
119		216.4625
120		216.4875
121		216.5125	C
122		216.5375
123		216.5625
124		216.5875
125		216.6125
126		216.6375
127		216.6625
128		216.6875
129		216.7125
130		216.7375
131		216.7625
132		216.7875
133		216.8125
134		216.8375
135		216.8625
136		216.8875
137		216.9125
138		216.9375
139		216.9625
140		216.9875
141	219.0125	217.0125	B
142	219.0375	217.0375
143	219.0625	217.0625
144	219.0875	217.0875
145	219.1125	217.1125
146	219.1375	217.1375
147	219.1625	217.1625
148	219.1875	217.1875
149	219.2125	217.2125
150	219.2375	217.2375
151	219.2625	217.2625
152	219.2875	217.2875
153	219.3125	217.3125
154	219.3375	217.3375
155	219.3625	217.3625
156	219.3875	217.3875
157	219.4125	217.4125
158	219.4375	217.4375
159	219.4625	217.4625
160	219.4875	217.4875
161	219.5125	217.5125	A
162	219.5375	217.5375
163	219.5625	217.5625
164	219.5875	217.5875
165	219.6125	217.6125
166	219.6375	217.6375
167	219.6625	217.6625
168	219.6875	217.6875
169	219.7125	217.7125
170	219.7375	217.7375
171	219.7625	217.7625
172	219.7875	217.7875
173	219.8125	217.8125
174	219.8375	217.8375
175	219.8625	217.8625
176	219.8875	217.8875
177	219.9125	217.9125
178	219.9375	217.9375
179	219.9625	217.9625
180	219.9875	217.9875
1 Ship transmit frequencies in Groups C and D are not authorized for AMTS use.
2 Coast station operation on frequencies in Groups C and D are not currently assignable and are shared on a secondary basis with the Low Power Radio Service in part 95 of this chapter. Frequencies in the band 216.750-217.000 MHz band are available for low power point-to-point network control communications by AMTS coast stations under the Low Power Radio Service (LPRS). LPRS operations are subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused to the United States Navy's SPASUR radar system (216.88-217.08 MHz) or to TV reception within the Grade B contour of any TV channel 13 station or within the 68 dBu predicted contour of any low power TV or TV translator station operating on channel 13.
3 Ship transmit frequencies in Groups A and B are permitted to provide mobile-to-mobile communications where the written consent of all affected licensees is obtained.

(3) As listed in the table in this paragraph, AMTS Areas (AMTSAs) are based on, and composed of one or more of, the U.S Department of Commerce's 172 Economic Areas (EAs). See 60 FR 13114 (March 10, 1995). In addition, the Commission shall treat Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Gulf of Mexico as EA-like areas. The Gulf of Mexico EA extends from 12 nautical miles off the United States Gulf coast outward into the Gulf. See § 27.6(a)(2) of this chapter and 62 FR 9636. Maps of the EAs and AMTSAs are available for public inspection and copying at the Federal Communications Commission, Reference Center, 445 12th Street, SW., Room CY A257, Washington, DC 20554. These maps and data are also available on the FCC Web site at www.fcc.gov/​oet/​info/​maps/​areas/​. The Group A and B frequency pairs listed in the table in paragraph (a)(2) of this section are available for assignment to a single licensee in each of the AMTSAs listed in the table in this paragraph. In addition to the listed EAs listed in the table in this paragraph, each AMTSA also includes the adjacent waters under the jurisdiction of the United States.

AMTS areas (AMTSAs)

AMTSAs	EAs
1 (Northern Atlantic)	1-5, 10 9, 11-23, 25, 42, 46
2 (Mid-Atlantic)	24, 26-34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 174
3 (Southern Atlantic)	35, 36, 39, 43-45, 47-53, 67-107, 113, 116-120, 122- 125, 127, 130-134, 176 6-8, 54-66, 108, 109
4 (Mississippi River)	160-165 147, 166-170
5 (Great Lakes)	172
6 (Southern Pacific)	171 110-112, 114-115, 121, 126, 128, 129, 135-146, 148-159
7 (Northern Pacific)
8 (Hawaii)
9 (Alaska)
10 (Mountain)

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