Network Planning Module for WiMAX: Maximum Achievable Data Rate
Courtesy: AWE Communications GmbH

In response to petitions for reconsideration, the FCC amended and clarified the ITFS and MDS two-way service rules in order to provide licensees with increased operational and technical flexibility, and provided a mechanism for licensees to address any interference problems.

The rule changes were intended to encourage the development of advanced, digital communications services envisioned by the wireless industry, while affording other users of the ITFS/MDS broadcast spectrum protection from electronic interference.

The FCC clarified that ITFS “receive sites” on a “point-to-multipoint” network will no longer be individually “registered” (protected), since the ITFS “transmission facilities” are afforded automatic PSA protection for the entire licensed coverage area. The FCC refused to make an exception to the PSA protection rules for “point-to-point” ITFS stations.

Permit use of a high-power booster stations for digital and/or analog modulation and clarify that two-way operations are not a prerequisite for licensing a high-power booster.

The FCC expanded the limited exception to the Protected Service Area Definition for License Modifications. Under FCC Rules, a modifying applicant may secure a waiver of the expanded 35 mile Protected Service Area (PSA) and maintain ‘‘grandfathered’’ interference, provided that the predicted interference does not occur within the 710 square mile PSA of the desired station. This exception was expanded for any modification not resulting in new interference to the station’s PSA nor increasing the size of the area suffering harmful interference. The exception was also expanded to cover any modification application where either the modifying or desired station was proposed after the effective date of the expanded PSA.

ITFS licensees carrying television programming were permitted to alternate between providing service on a “common carrier” (as a communication company that provides facilities for transmission, but does not originate messages) and non-common carrier basis. When acting as a common carrier regulation, the ITFS licensee must (1) control the operation of all receiving facilities, including the equipment needed to convert the signal to a standard television channel, and (2) notify its customers in advance of any discontinuance or reduction in service. The licensee must also notify the FCC and state whether it has any affiliation or relationship to any “intended or likely subscriber or program originator.”

The FCC had previously extended the maximum term for a lease from 10 years to 15 years and allowed leases in effect prior to the ruling (“grandfathered” leases) with automatic lease term extensions to continue for the maximum 15 year term (initial term of 10 years + 5 years of the 10 year renewal term). The FCC clarified that a lease that contains a provision to automatically extend a 10-year initial term (formerly the maximum allowable term) to “the maximum allowed by the Commission,” did not loose its “grandfathered” status. This is to prevent any need for a mass renegotiation of existing leases. The FCC also clarified that a provision that simply automatically renewed the lease did not protect the leases grandfathered status. This is to prevent leases from being grandfathered into perpetuity.

FCC Revises Two-Way MDS and ITFS Service Rules on Reconsideration; Clarifies Digital Declaratory Ruling Provisions, Rini Coran, PC (July 30, 1999).