Waiver of Business and Industrial/Land Transportation Channel Construction Requirements

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

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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, (202) 857-3800, and to Scot Stone, Federal Communications

Commission, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and

Private Wireless Division, 2025 M St., N.W., Room 8010G, (202) 418-0680

or via e-mail to [email protected].

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, (202) 857-3800.

6. For further information, contact Scot Stone of the Public Safety

and Private Wireless Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau

at (202) 418-0680 or via e-mail to [email protected].

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