FWCC Petitions FCC for Revamp of Earth Station Licensing Regime

for rulemaking Monday, FWCC said it wants FSS frequency coordination rules to be more akin to those governing fixed service (FS). "The routine practice of full-band, full arc earth station coordination might have made sense fifty years ago," FWCC said, saying FSS earth station coordination should be only for the frequency, azimuth and elevation angles it intends to use; that the earth station license and construction certification specifies those combinations; and that a frequency/azimuth/elevation angle combination on a license that goes unused for more than 90 days must be reported to the FCC and deleted from the license. Its proposal would let an FSS application coordinate additional frequency/azimuth/elevation angle combos as "growth capacity" that can be renewed indefinitely and that FS applicants must try to avoid. The group proposed an exception where FSS applicants can ask for a waiver letting one coordinate a choice of frequencies/azimuths/elevation angles without any construction deadlines if the earth station will be part of a network with a need to access multiple satellites. FWCC said this petition differs from a similar attempt it made in 1999, since that request made no mention of growth capacity. FWCC declined Tuesday to name its membership. Membership includes microwave equipment makers, licensees of terrestrial fixed microwave systems, communications service providers, public utilities, public safety agencies, cable-TV providers and backhaul providers.