FM Translator Interference Draft Order Includes 45 dBu Contour, Population-Based Complaint Minimums

Though the interference contour was seen as the most controversial proposal in the proceeding, the move from 54 dBu to 45 dBu is seen as a reasonable compromise solution, broadcasters told us. “At least they are picking a number,” said Cromwell Group CEO Bayard Walters in an interview. The limit will provide more certainty to both full-power and translator owners, he said.

Setting a 45 dBu contour limit on interference complaints from full-power FM stations “encompasses the bulk of full service core listenership while limiting complaints at the margins of listenable coverage,” the draft order said. Numerous radio groups, including Beasley and NPR, argued the originally proposed 54 dBu limit would cut them off from large chunks of their listeners (see 1904100069).

At a 45 dBu contour, most stations show a steep drop-off in listeners, the draft order said. “A desired station’s signal at that distance is generally not strong enough to reliably attract a significant listening audience,” the draft order said. The new draft contour would allow stations to preserve more of their listener base, said Hubbard Broadcasting Director-Engineering Dave Garner in an interview.

Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner described the draft order as balancing the concerns of several groups, and the released version’s 45 dBu contour isn’t as far out as the 42 dBu requested by several large station groups. The draft order does adopt another concept from those groups by including a waiver process, by which full powers would be able to lodge interference complaints against translators outside the 45 dBu contour if they can show the existence “of a sizable community of listeners.” Henson Media CEO Ed Henson told us he’s concerned the waiver process could be used to make the 45 dBu contour meaningless. Broadcast attorneys said that would depend on how the FCC responds to waiver applications. It’s likely to be tested, said Rini O’Neil radio attorney David O’Neil: “We’re gonna find out.”

The draft order would base the minimum number of complaints required for action against a translator on the population served by the complaining full power in its protected service contour, with the number ranging from 6 to 65, it said. Low-power FM stations that serve fewer than 5,000 people need to file a minimum of three complaints, the draft order said. It also establishes specific requirements for those complainants, including that they listen to the station twice a month, not be affiliated in any way, and that their problems tuning the station occurred within the 45 dBu contour.

“We anticipate that these enhanced listener complaint requirements will significantly reduce challenges to a listener’s bona fides and thus simplify and streamline translator interference proceedings,” the draft order said. The order adopts a “presumption of validity” for such complaints and puts the burden of rebutting that presumption on the translator. Though several broadcast attorneys said the procedures in the order would cut down on endless challenges of the validity of listener complaints, others said stations would be able to work around them. The order also includes a 90-day “target” for resolving complaint issues, and requires all of the listener complaints to have occurred in the same year.

The draft order’s most widely supported and expected provision would allow translators to more easily change frequencies to resolve interference complaints. “Moving anywhere as a minor change is a big help,” Henson said, cautioning it would mostly be of use to translators in smaller media markets. In large markets there isn’t as much available spectrum, he said. "Certainty is good," said O'Neil.

China Mobile

An order rejecting China Mobile USA’s application to provide telecommunications services in the U.S. through an international Section 214 authorization takes a hard line on China, as expected (see 1904170049). “In the current security environment, there is a significant risk that the Chinese government would use the grant of such authority to China Mobile USA to conduct activities that would seriously jeopardize the national security and law enforcement interests of the United States,” the draft says. “We find that those risks cannot be adequately addressed through a mitigation agreement.”

China Mobile argued that the U.S.'s World Trade Organization commitments obligate the U.S. to permit market entry as the company sought in 2011. Under the FCC’s Foreign Participation Order, “China Mobile USA is entitled to a rebuttable presumption that grant of its application would not be contrary to the public interest on competition grounds,” the draft asserts: That hasn’t changed.

“No such presumption applies to national security and law enforcement concerns, which are separate, independent factors the Commission considers in its public interest analysis,” the order says. “As to those concerns, China Mobile USA has the burden to show that the public interest would be served by the grant despite the risks identified by the Executive Branch agencies.”

Last July, executive branch agencies opposed the application, the draft notes. Nothing under WTO agreements or the General Agreement on Trade in Services “prevents the Commission from soliciting or deferring to the Executive Branch agencies’ assessment of whether an application raises serious national security or law enforcement concerns,” the draft says.

An NPRM on reallocating the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared use said it’s “another step in the Commission’s efforts to help ensure that the speed, capacity, and ubiquity of the nation’s wireless networks keep pace with ever-increasing demand for wireless broadband.” Ligado had asked the FCC to look at the band, but is mentioned only in a footnote in the draft NPRM. “We note that Ligado Networks LLC (Ligado) and its predecessor LightSquared petitioned the Commission to initiate a rulemaking to determine whether to allocate this band for non-federal terrestrial mobile use on a shared basis with federal users,” the draft says. The draft says the FCC doesn’t address the petition for rulemaking but will include various filings it previously made in the record.

833 Auction

The FCC's first toll-free number auction will have a single round of bidding, with bids submitted online, and then the winning bid for each of more than 17,000 numbers being announced, the FCC said in its draft public notice. The FCC asks such questions in the draft as, beyond online tutorials, if it should offer other types of educational or hands-on practice to potential bidders since many will have never taken part in an FCC auction. It also proposed that each auction application be prohibited from cooperating or collaborating with other applicants on bids or bidding strategies. After receiving comments, the agency would release another public notice establishing the final application and bidding procedures.

The FCC in its draft approval of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) earth observation satellite operator's plans (see here) conditions it on the company's coming back with better details on its orbital debris mitigation plan. The unprecedented number of satellites that Theia Holdings wants to put in orbit -- 112 active non-geostationary orbit satellites and eight on-orbit spares -- plus the legions of others proposed by other NGSO systems -- require the FCC do more assessment of the best reliability standards for the satellites themselves and of the satellite systems' methods for de-orbiting, the agency said in the draft order.