47 CFR Part 22 - PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICES

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection requirements associated with the Commission's Second Report and Order and Report and Order, WT Docket Nos. 12-40 and 10-112, RM 11510 and 11660, FCC 17-27, including implementation of modified collection requirements on FCC Form 601, FCC Application for Radio Service Authorization. This document is consistent with the Second Report and Order and Report and Order, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing OMB approval and the effective date of the requirements.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes and seeks comment on reforms of its rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular (Cellular) Service and other Public Mobile Services. Specifically, the Commission proposes to eliminate four rules that impose requirements on licensees in these services concerning station inspections, records retention and production, operators at station control points, and the filing of certain employment reports. The Commission believes that the existing requirements may disadvantage the affected licensees, as compared to licensees of other wireless spectrum bands, or may no longer be necessary in today's digital age, or for which the benefits may no longer outweigh the costs and burdens of compliance. The Commission also seeks comment on whether other measures could be taken to give Public Mobile Services licensees more flexibility and administrative relief, and on ways to consolidate and simplify its rules, not only for the Cellular Service, but also other geographically licensed wireless services. In this regard, the Commission considers a possible relocation of rules governing certain flexibly licensed wireless services.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts revised rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular Radiotelephone (Cellular) Service. The Commission revises the outdated Cellular radiated power rules and related technical provisions, most notably allowing licensees the option to comply with power spectral density (PSD) power limits, while also safeguarding systems that share the 800 MHz band, especially public safety systems, from increased unacceptable interference. These updated rules will allow Cellular licensees to deploy advanced mobile broadband services such as long term evolution (LTE) more efficiently. The Cellular licensing rule revisions continue the transition to a geographic-based regime by eliminating certain filing requirements, and also eliminate the comparative hearing process for Cellular license renewals. Both the technical and licensing reforms provide Cellular licensees with more flexibility, reduce administrative burdens, and enable Cellular licensees to respond more quickly—and at lower cost—to changing market conditions and consumer demand. They also promote similar treatment across competing commercial wireless spectrum bands.

In this document, the Commission acknowledges the publication of ANSI C63.26-2015 “American National Standard for Compliance Testing of Transmitters Used in Licensed Radio Services” and seeks comment on incorporating it into the Commission's rules by reference as part of an open rulemaking proceeding that addresses its equipment authorization (EA) rules and procedures. The standard was recently published and is now an “active standard”—that is, the standards association considers it to be valid, current, and approved.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection requirements associated with the Commission's Report and Order, WT Docket No. 12-40, RM 11510, FCC 14-181. This document is consistent with the Report and Order, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing OMB approval and the effective date of the requirements.

In this document, the Commission proposes and seeks comment on reforms of its rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular (“Cellular”) Service. The proposals include a geographic-based discontinuance of operations rule to replace the current site-based approach, and the establishment of frequency coordinators to review certain applications prior to their submission to the Commission. In addition, the Commission proposes revised Cellular radiated power provisions and related technical rules, including use of a power spectral density (“PSD”) model. The goals of the proposed reforms are to provide licensees with increased flexibility, achieve greater efficiency in the provision of new service to consumers, and facilitate deployment of next-generation wireless broadband networks that use advanced technologies.

In this Report and Order (“ R&O ”), the Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) adopts new and revised rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular (“Cellular”) Service, changing the licensing model from site-based to geographic-based and eliminating numerous filing requirements while preserving direct access to area not yet licensed (“Unserved Area”). The Commission also deletes obsolete and unnecessary provisions in the rules and streamlines requirements remaining in place. The resulting modernized scheme gives greater flexibility to Cellular licensees to make improvements to their systems in response to changing market demands.

The Federal Communications Commission extends the deadline for filing reply comments on the Commission's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ( NPRM ), in this proceeding, which was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, January 15, 2014. Interested parties now will have until May 16, 2014, to file reply comments, as opposed to the March 17, 2014, deadline set forth in the NPRM.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection associated with the Commission's Third Report and Order; An Inquiry Into the Commission's Policies and Rules Regarding AM Radio Service Directional Antenna Performance Verification. This document is consistent with the Third Report and Order, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing OMB approval and the effective date of the requirements.

In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Commission proposes to revise outdated rules and adopt consistent new rules governing mobile communications services aboard airborne aircraft. These rule changes would give airlines, subject to applicable Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Transportation (DoT) rules, the choice of whether to enable mobile communications services using an Airborne Access System and, if so, which specific services to enable. The proposed rules would also replace an existing patchwork of regulatory prohibitions on airborne use of mobile services in some, but not all, of the heavily used mobile wireless bands with a consistent regulatory framework that explicitly forbids airborne use of mobile services in those bands unless they are operating on an aircraft equipped with an Airborne Access System.

The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) is correcting final rules that appeared in the Federal Register of 78 FR 66288, November 5, 2013. The document issued final rules that establish a single protection scheme for tower construction and modification near AM tower arrays and designate “moment method” computer modeling as the principal means of determining whether a nearby tower affects an AM radiation pattern. This correction makes no change to the substance of the rules.

In this document, the Commission adopted a single protection scheme for tower construction and modification near AM tower arrays and designated “moment method” computer modeling as the principal means of determining whether a nearby tower affects an AM radiation pattern. The Commission also dismissed in part as moot and denied in all other respects a petition for reconsideration of the Second Report and Order in MM Docket No. 93-177.

In this document, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collections associated with the Commission's rules to improve wireless coverage through the use of signal boosters. This notice is consistent with the Report and Order, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of those rules.

The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes an allocation in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band to permit operation of an air-ground mobile broadband service in the contiguous United States. The Commission proposes a secondary allocation for air-ground mobile broadband, and requires new air-ground mobile broadband licensees to avoid harmful interference to the Fixed-Satellite Service and prior-licensed Federal Fixed Service, Mobile Service, and Space Research Service users in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, and to coordinate with the Radio Astronomy Service to avoid interference to radio astronomy observations. The Commission also proposes to license air-ground mobile broadband on a nationwide basis, and seeks comment on whether it should license air-ground mobile broadband in two spectrum blocks of 250 megahertz each, one spectrum block of 500 megahertz, or some other spectrum block size. The Commission proposes to grant licenses by auction in the case of mutually exclusive applications.

In this document, a Petition for Reconsideration (Petition) has been filed in the Commission's Rulemaking proceeding by Dennis P. Corbett on behalf of Council Tree Investors, Inc. and Bethel Native Corporation.

In this document, Petitions for Reconsideration (Petitions) have been filed in the Commission's Rulemaking proceeding by Russell D. Lukas on behalf of Wilson Electronics, LLC, Sean Haynberg on behalf of V-COMM, LLC, and by Mark L. Crosby on behalf of the Enterprise Wireless Alliance.

This document revises and streamlines the Commission rules to modernize the Experimental Radio Service (ERS). The rules adopted in the Report and Order updates the ERS to a more flexible framework to keep pace with the speed of modern technological change while continuing to provide an environment where creativity can thrive. To accomplish this transition, the Commission created three new types of ERS licenses—the program license, the medical testing license, and the compliance testing license—to benefit the development of new technologies, expedite their introduction to the marketplace, and unleash the full power of innovators to keep the United States at the forefront of the communications industry. The Commission's actions also modify the market trial rules to eliminate confusion and more clearly articulate its policies with respect to marketing products prior to equipment certification. The Commission believes that these actions will remove regulatory barriers to experimentation, thereby permitting institutions to move from concept to experimentation to finished product more rapidly and to more quickly implement creative problem-solving methodologies.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) amends its rules concerning signal boosters for consumer and industrial use in effort to enhance wireless coverage for consumers, particularly in rural, underserved, and difficult-to-serve areas by broadening the availability of signal boosters while ensuring that boosters do not adversely affect wireless networks.

The Memorandum Opinion and Order on Reconsideration (MO&O) denies or dismisses petitions seeking reconsideration of certain decisions made by the Commission in the 700 MHz Second Report and Order, relating to the 698-806 MHz Band, including decisions regarding performance requirements, the auction and competitive bidding rules, the open platform rules, public safety narrowband relocation procedures, and the decisions not to impose wholesale requirements, eligibility restrictions, and spectrum aggregation limits. This MO&O also dismisses as moot petitions for reconsideration of rules establishing a Public/Private Partnership between the Upper 700 MHz D Block (D Block) licensee and the Public Safety Broadband Licensee in the 763-768 MHz and 793-798 MHz bands.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collections associated with the Commission's Migratory Bird Order on Remand ( Order ). This document is consistent with the Order, which stated that the rules will become effective upon Commission publication of a document in the Federal Register announcing their approval by OMB.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) announce a limited suspension of the acceptance and processing of certain applications for certain services operating in the 470-512 MHz (T-Band) spectrum band in order to maintain a stable spectral landscape while the Commission determines how to implement recent spectrum legislation contained in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. The suspension applies only to applications for new or expanded use of T-Band frequencies.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes to amend the rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular Radiotelephone Service (Cellular Service). In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ( NPRM ), the Commission proposes to transition the Cellular Service from a site-based licensing model to a geographic-based model by offering an “overlay” license for every Cellular Market Area (CMA) and corresponding channel block (Block A or Block B), in two stages, via auction. The Overlay Licensees would be obligated to protect existing licensees' Cellular operations from harmful interference. The NPRM also includes proposals to update various other Cellular Service rules. The Commission seeks comment on all its proposals as well as on alternative proposals. The companion Order imposes certain interim procedures, including a freeze on the filing of certain Cellular applications in certain markets and other interim procedures regarding currently pending applications to help ensure an orderly and efficient rulemaking proceeding while the Commission considers changes to the Cellular Service rules.