FCC Provides Guidelines for Public Safety Licensees Unable to Meet 800 MHz Rebanding Deadline
The FCC issued a public notice that provides a template for 800 MHz licensees to follow if they need additional time beyond a June 26 deadline to complete retuning of their radios (CD Jan 3 p5). Commission and public safety sources said many will ask for more time, though the likely number is difficult to predict. Licensees along the Canadian and Mexican borders are not covered by the same tight deadline.
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“The guidance contained in this Public Notice is intended to expedite both the preparation and submission of waiver requests by licensees as well as the review of such requests by the Bureau, consistent with the Commission’s overarching goal of ensuring that rebanding is accomplished in a reasonable, prudent, and timely manner,” the FCC said in the notice that was expected for several weeks.
The FCC wanted to send what has been a recurring message
- licensees are expected to take every step possible to complete rebanding by the deadline, agency sources said. “Requests for extension will be subject to a high level of scrutiny,” the notice said. “Licensees will be expected to demonstrate that they have worked diligently and in good faith to complete rebanding expeditiously, and that the amount of additional time requested is no more than is reasonably necessary to complete the rebanding process.”
The FCC said licensees in Waves 1 and 2 must file waiver requests by March 17, Wave 3 and non-border Wave 4 licensees by April 15. Under the FCC’s recommended procedures, licensees are supposed to address the following factors when they make a filing with the Public Safety Bureau: system size and complexity; interoperability with other systems, and how such interoperability will affect the ultimate rebanding schedule; and steps taken to complete reconfiguration, including participation in the Subscriber Equipment Deployment (SED) program and participation in a Transition Administrator-sponsored regional planning session. Licensees are also expected to provide a detailed timetable listing steps already completed and anticipated dates for the replacement and retuning of radios and infrastructure retuning.
The FCC encouraged licensees that are part of a regional coordination plan or otherwise coordinating their rebanding efforts to file coordinated requests. The notice also addressed an issue specific to Sprint Nextel, concerning cases where a NPSPAC licensee receives a waiver allowing it to relocate to the new NPSPAC band after June 26. Sprint will be allowed to operate temporarily on the Channel 1-120 channels that it would otherwise have to vacate to accommodate the NPSPAC system, the notice said. “Sprint may file such waiver petitions at any time after the corresponding NPSPAC petitions are filed, i.e., it does not need to wait to file until the Bureau has acted on the corresponding NPSPAC petitions.”