Cellular Network Diagram, Courtesy Clearwire Corporation

Two Way Operation (1996-1999)

Agency Action

News Release

MMB Implements Policy for Provision of Internet Service on MDS and Leased ITFS/MDS Frequencies, Public Notice, DA 96-1720 (10/17/1996). text

Notice of Propose Rulemaking

MDS and ITFS Licensees To Engage in Fixed Two-Way Transmissions (10/7/1997). pdf - Word - text

Amendment of Parts 21 and 74 to Enable Multipoint Distribution Service and Instructional Television Fixed Service Licensees to Engage in Fixed Two-Way Transmissions, Report and Order, MM Docket 97-217, RM-9060, 13 FCC Rcd 19112, ¶ 1 (1998), 63 FR 65087.

FCC 98-231 Order

Declaratory Ruling on the Use of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Modulation by MDS and ITFS Stations, Public Notice, DA 98-2129 (March 19, 1999).

Pleading Cycle: txt - wp

Declaratory Ruling and Order: pdf - Word - text

Executive Summary - 1998 Two Way Order (FCC 98-231)

In 1998, the Commission adopted technical rule changes to provide MDS and ITFS licensees with the flexibility to fully employ digital technology in delivering two-way communications services, including high-speed and high-capacity data transmission and Internet service on a regular basis.

In two-way operations, response stations (Consumer Premises Equipment) and response station hubs (base stations) are used to construct a cellularized microwave network.

Under the two-way system, a response station hub will be the means of transmission from a subscriber's premises and may be used as a separate transmitter or as a part of a transceiver (combined transmitter and receiver).

Response station hubs serve as the collection points for signals from response stations in a multipoint-to- -point configuration.

Response station hubs will allow MDS response stations to operate at lower power levels because the stations are located closer to subscriber premises than transmitter sites.

With the advent of two-way technology, ITFS/MDS became a vehicle for offering broadband service to educational, residential and small office/home office customers.

The goals of this proceeding were to facilitate the most efficient use of MDS/ITFS spectrum, to enhance the competitiveness of the wireless cable industry, and to provide benefits to the educational community through the use of two-way services, such as high-speed Internet service.

The following rules were adopted:

Permit both MDS and ITFS licensees to provide two-way services on a regular basis.

MDS operators also face challenges posed by the convergence of different information delivery systems. Cable television and satellite operators have been increasingly providing a variety of two-way services, including Internet access. The MDS industry needs to be able to offer comparable, competitively priced services to compete against its competitors.

Simplify and streamline the licensing process for stations used in cellularized systems.

The new application processing system shifts review of applications for new or modified response station hubs, boosters, or downstream operations away from FCC staff and requires that the licensees resolve any potential interference issues.

The FCC will rely on the certifications of the applicant in the license application.

The applicant must certify that it has completed all required interference studies demonstrating no interference (or obtain consent letters from affected licensees).

ITFS and MDS applications are placed on public notice without prior staff review of interference studies.

ITFS and MDS license applications are granted on the 61st day after public notice, unless a petition to deny is filed or the application is subject to a random audit.

Applicants are required to protect existing or proposed ITFS facilities. Any system causing non-consensual interference must cure it immediately or face shut-down, even if the license application was processed after public notice without opposition.

The streamlined application system for digital modification applications includes a one-day rolling filing window system.

Applications filed on the same day will be granted and the filers left to resolve incompatibilities among themselves with little or no intervention by Commission staff.

Grant each ITFS licensee a 35-mile protected service area (‘‘PSA’’) and grant individual protection to all receive sites registered through the date of adoption of the Two-Way Order.

Modify the ITFS programming requirements in light of the use of digital technology by ITFS licensees.

Spectrum usages beyond video programming are now eligible to satisfy ITFS educational usage requirements. Applications satisfying the educational usage requirements include downstream or upstream video, data, and voice transmissions.

The availability of advanced technologies make it possible to accord ITFS licensees increased flexibility in determining which transmissions qualify as satisfying educational usage requirements, so long as the transmissions will further the educational mission of an accredited public or private school, college or university, or other eligible institution, offering courses to enrolled students.

Qualifying transmissions are not limited to on-campus receive sites, and may include transmissions to and from homes and other off-campus sites.

Other permissible uses (that do not satisfy the educational use requirements) include teacher conferencing, remote test administration, distribution of reports and assignments, research towards and sharing works of progress in projects for courses, professional training, and continuing professional education.

Adopt ITFS excess capacity leasing rules that best promote flexibility while at the same time safeguarding the primary educational purpose of the ITFS spectrum allocation. New rules for digital transmissions retain the current 20 hours per channel per week educational usage requirements, with an absolute reservation of a minimum of 5% of an ITFS station's capacity for instructional purposes only.

The 20 hours per channel per week minimum educational usage requirement is independent from, but concurrent with, the minimum 5% capacity reservation.

This 5% reservation applies spectrally over the ITFS licensee's whole protected service area. Therefore, a minimum of 5% of an ITFS licensee's capacity is guaranteed to be available to the licensee immediately at all times.

Eliminate the analog service requirements for the ITFS licensee to set aside capacity for ready recapture when providing digital service.

The reserved capacity can be devoted to satisfying minimum educational usage requirements.

Enforce the minimum amounts of educational usage and absolute capacity reservation required of ITFS licensees utilizing digital transmissions to preserve the formal educational goals that underlie ITFS.

The FCC retained two different but complementary requirements of ITFS spectral usage: a minimum of 20 hours per channel per week for educational usage, and a minimum reservation of 5% of a licensee's capacity that it may not lease.

Both are difficult to measure in light of the varied forms that such usage can take. Accordingly, the FCC will rely on the good faith efforts of ITFS licensees to meet the requirements set forth in the rules.

Under certain circumstances, ITFS licensees may bear the burden of proving compliance with these requirements, such as a Commission audit. In responding to audits, licensees must be ready and able to describe and document how they complied with these requirements.

Permit increased flexibility in spectrum use and channelization, including combining multiple channels to accommodate wider bandwidths, dividing 6 MHz channels into smaller bandwidths, and channel swapping. These approaches are needed by wireless operators to assemble the contiguous frequency blocks that are essential for a two-way architecture.

Allow ITFS and EBS licensees to use all or part of a 6 MHz channel for return path transmissions from subscriber premises, to cellularize their transmission systems to take advantage of spectrally efficient frequency reuse techniques, and to employ modulation schemes consistent with bandwidths either larger or smaller than the 6 MHz available in a single channel.

Adopt a simplified procedure for ITFS and EBS licensees to swap channels by filing a pro forma assignment application and attaching an exhibit, which clearly specifies that the application is filed pursuant to a channel swap agreement.

Adopt a number of technical parameters to mitigate the potential for interference among service providers and to ensure interference protection to existing MDS and ITFS services.

White Papers

FCC Invites Comment on Industry Proposal to Enhance ITFS/MDS Licensees Ability to Provide Two-Way Digital Transmissions, Rini Coran, PC (1997).

FCC Revises MDS and ITFS Rules to Facilitate Provision of Two-Way Services, Rini Coran, PC (1998).