This subpart sets out the regulations governing the licensing and operations of 900 MHz broadband systems operating in the 897.5-900.5/936.5-939.5 MHz band. It includes eligibility requirements and operational and technical standards for stations licensed in this band. It also supplements the rules regarding application procedures contained in part 1, subpart F of this chapter. The rules in this subpart are to be read in conjunction with the applicable requirements contained elsewhere in this part; however, in case of conflict, the provisions of this subpart shall govern with respect to licensing and operation in this frequency band.

Terms used in this subpart shall have the following meanings:

900 MHz broadband. The 900 MHz broadband systems in the 897.5-900.5/936.5-939.5 MHz band licensed by the Commission pursuant to the provisions of this subpart.

900 MHz broadband licensee. An entity that holds a 900 MHz broadband license issued pursuant to this subpart.

900 MHz broadband segment. The segment of realigned 900 MHz spectrum (i.e., the 897.5-900.5/936.5-939.5 MHz band) licensed by the Commission pursuant to the provisions of this subpart.

900 MHz narrowband segment. The segments of realigned 900 MHz spectrum (i.e., the 896-897.5/935-936.5 MHz and 900.5-901/939.5-940 MHz bands (Paired channels 1-119 and 361-399)) designated for narrowband operations and licensed pursuant to 47 CFR part 90, subpart S.

Complex system. A covered incumbent's system that consists of 45 or more functionally integrated sites.

County. For purposes of this part, counties shall be defined using the United States Census Bureau's data reflecting county legal boundaries and names valid through January 1, 2017.

Covered incumbent. Any 900 MHz site-based licensee in the broadband segment that is required under § 90.621(b) to be protected by a broadband licensee with a base station at any location within the county, or any 900 MHz geographic-based SMR licensee in the broadband segment whose license area completely or partially overlaps the county.

Eligibility Certification. A filing made to the Commission as part of the prospective broadband licensee's application for a 900 MHz broadband license that demonstrates satisfaction of the eligibility restrictions.

License area. The geographic component of a 900 MHz broadband license. A license area consists of one county.

Power spectral density (PSD). The power of an emission in the frequency domain, such as in terms of ERP or EIRP, stated per unit bandwidth, e.g., watts/MHz.

Site-channel. A channel licensed at a particular location.

Transition plan. A filing made to the Commission as part of the prospective broadband licensee's application for a 900 MHz broadband license that includes a plan for transitioning the band in the particular county.

Transitioned market. See section 90.7 of part 90 of this chapter.

A 900 MHz broadband licensee that permanently discontinues service as defined in § 1.953 must notify the Commission of the discontinuance within 10 days by filing FCC Form 601 requesting license cancelation. An authorization will automatically terminate, without specific Commission action, if service is permanently discontinued as defined in this chapter, even if a licensee fails to file the required form requesting license cancelation.

(a) Eligibility. For an applicant to be eligible for a broadband license in a county, it must:

(1) Hold the licenses for more than 50% of the total amount of licensed 900 MHz SMR (site-based or geographically licensed) and B/ILT (site-based) spectrum for the relevant county including credit for spectrum included in an application to acquire or relocate covered incumbents filed with the Commission on or after March 14, 2019;

(2) Hold spectrum in the broadband segment or reach an agreement to clear through acquisition or relocation, including credit for spectrum included in an application to acquire or relocate covered incumbents filed with the Commission on or after March 14, 2019, or demonstrate how it will provide interference protection to, covered incumbent licensees collectively holding licenses in the broadband segment for at least 90% of the site-channels in the county and within 70 miles of the county boundary, and geographically licensed channels where the license area completely or partially overlaps the county. To provide interference protection, an applicant may:

(i) Protect site-based covered incumbent(s) through compliance with minimum spacing criteria set forth in § 90.621(b) of this chapter;

(ii) Protect site-based covered incumbent(s) through new or existing letters of concurrence agreeing to lesser base station separations as set forth in § 90.621(b); and/or

(iii) Protect geographically based covered incumbent(s) through a private contractual agreement.

(3) If any site of a complex system is located within the county and/or within 70 miles of the county boundary, an applicant must either hold the license for that site or reach an agreement to acquire, relocate, or protect it in order to demonstrate eligibility.

(4) The applicant may use its current 900 MHz holdings in the narrowband segment to relocate covered incumbents. Spectrum used for the purpose of relocating incumbent(s) may not exceed the incumbent's current spectrum holdings in the relevant county, unless additional channels are necessary to achieve equivalent coverage and/or capacity.

(b) Application. (1) Applications must be filed in accordance with part 1, subpart F of this chapter.

(2) An applicant for a 900 MHz broadband license must submit with its application an Eligibility Certification that:

(i) Lists the licenses the applicant holds in the 900 MHz band to demonstrate that it holds the licenses for more than 50% of the total licensed 900 MHz spectrum, whether SMR or B/ILT, for the relevant county including credit for spectrum included in an application to acquire or relocate any covered incumbents filed on or after March 14, 2019;

(ii) A statement that it has filed a Transition Plan detailing how it holds spectrum in the broadband segment and/or has reached an agreement to clear through acquisition or relocation (including credit for spectrum included in an application to acquire or relocate covered incumbents filed with the Commission on or after March 14, 2019), or demonstrate how it will provide interference protection to, covered incumbent licensees collectively holding licenses in the broadband segment for at least 90% of the site-channels in the county and within 70 miles of the county boundary, and geographically licensed channels where the license area completely or partially overlaps the county.

(3) An applicant for a 900 MHz broadband license must submit with its application a Transition Plan that provides:

(i) A showing of one or more of the following:

(A) Agreement by covered incumbents to relocate from the broadband segment;

(B) Protection of site-based covered incumbents through compliance with minimum spacing criteria;

(C) Protection of site-based covered incumbents through new or existing letters of concurrence agreeing to lesser base station separations;

(D) Protection of geographically-based covered incumbents through private contractual agreements; and/or

(E) Evidence that it holds licenses for the site-channels and/or geographically licensed channels.

(ii) Descriptions of the agreements between the prospective broadband licensee and all covered incumbents collectively holding licenses for at least 90% of site-channels within the county and within 70 miles of the county boundary, and geographically licensed channels where the license area completely or partially overlaps the county.

(iii) Descriptions in detail of all information and actions necessary to accomplish the realignment, as follows:

(A) The applications that the parties to the agreements will file for spectrum in the narrowband segment in order to relocate or repack licensees;

(B) A description of how the applicant will provide interference protection to, and/or acquire or relocate from the broadband segment covered incumbents collectively holding licenses for at least 90% of site-channels within 70 miles of the county and within 70 miles of the county boundary and/or evidence that it holds licenses for the site-channels and/or geographically licensed channels.

(C) Any rule waivers or other actions necessary to implement an agreement with a covered incumbent; and

(D) Such additional information as may be required.

(iv) A certification from an FCC-certified frequency coordinator that the Transition Plan's representations can be implemented consistent with Commission rules. The certification must establish that the relocations proposed therein take into consideration all relevant covered incumbents and are consistent with the existing part 90 interference protection criteria if the covered incumbent is site-based, and include any private contractual agreements between the prospective broadband licensee and a geographically-licensed covered incumbent.

(4) Applicants seeking to transition multiple counties may simultaneously file a single Transition Plan with each of its county-based applications.

(c) Anti-windfall provisions. (1) The applicant must return to the Commission all of its licensed 900 MHz SMR and B/ILT spectrum, up to six megahertz, for the county in which it seeks a broadband license. The applicant will be required to file, within 15 days of filing its broadband license application, an application(s) to cancel all of its 900 MHz SMR and B/ILT spectrum, up to six megahertz, conditioned upon Commission grant of its application.

(2) If the applicant relinquishes less than six megahertz of spectrum in accordance with paragraph (c)(1) of this section, then the applicant must remit an anti-windfall payment prior to the grant of the 900 MHz broadband license. Payment must be made through a monetary payment to the U.S. Treasury.

(a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this section, broadband licensees may require mandatory relocation from the broadband segment covered incumbents' remaining site-channels in a given county and within 70 miles of the county boundary, and geographically licensed channels where the license area completely or partially overlaps the county, that were not covered by § 27.1503(a)(2).

(b) Complex systems are exempt from mandatory relocation. To qualify as exempt from mandatory relocation, a complex system must have at least one site (of its 45 or more functionally integrated sites) located within the county license area or within 70 miles of the county boundary.

(c) A broadband licensee seeking to relocate a covered incumbent pursuant to this section is required to pay all reasonable relocation costs, including providing the relocated covered incumbent with comparable facilities. To be comparable, the replacement system provided to a covered incumbent during a mandatory relocation must be at least equivalent to the existing 900 MHz system with respect to the following four factors:

(1) System;

(2) Capacity;

(3) Quality of service; and

(4) Operating costs.

(d) Having met the 90% success threshold, a 900 MHz broadband licensee seeking to trigger the mandatory relocation process shall serve notice on applicable covered incumbent(s).

(e) Following the service of notice, a 900 MHz broadband licensee may request information from the covered incumbent reasonably required to craft its offer of comparable facilities.

(f) We expect all parties to negotiate with the utmost “good faith” in the negotiation process. Factors relevant to a “good-faith” determination include:

(1) Whether the party responsible for paying the cost of band reconfiguration has made a bona fide offer to relocate the incumbent to comparable facilities;

(2) The steps the parties have taken to determine the actual cost of relocation to comparable facilities; and

(3) Whether either party has unreasonably withheld information, essential to the accurate estimation of relocation costs and procedures, requested by the other party.

(g) A party seeking Commission resolution of a dispute must submit in writing to the Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau:

(1) The name, address, telephone number, and email address of the 900 MHz broadband licensee or covered incumbent making the allegation;

(2) The name of the 900 MHz broadband licensee or covered incumbent about which the allegation is made;

(3) A complete statement of the facts supporting the broadband licensee's or incumbent's claim; and

(4) The specific relief sought.

(h) If an incumbent fails to negotiate in good faith, its facilities may be mandatorily relocated, and its license modified accordingly by the Commission pursuant to section 316 of the Act. If the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau finds bad faith on the part of the broadband licensee, the broadband licensee may lose the right to relocate the incumbent or the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau may refer the matter to the Enforcement Bureau for action (which could include a range of sanctions, such as imposition of forfeitures).

(a) 900 MHz broadband licensees shall demonstrate compliance with performance requirements by filing a construction notification with the Commission, within 15 days of the expiration of the applicable benchmark, in accordance with the provisions set forth in § 1.946(d) of this chapter.

(1) The licensee must certify whether it has met the applicable performance requirements. The licensee must file a description and certification of the areas for which it is providing service. The construction notifications must include electronic coverage maps and supporting technical documentation regarding the type of service it is providing for each licensed area within its service territory and the type of technology used to provide such service, and certify the accuracy of such documentation. Supporting documentation must include the assumptions used to create the coverage maps, including the propagation model and the signal strength necessary to provide reliable service with the licensee's technology.

(2) To demonstrate compliance with the population coverage requirement, licensees shall use the most recently available decennial U.S. Census Bureau data at the time of measurement and shall base their measurements of population served on areas no larger than the Census Tract level. The population within a specific Census Tract (or other acceptable identifier) will be deemed served by the licensee only if it provides reliable signal coverage to and offers service within the specific Census Tract (or other acceptable identifier). To the extent the Census Tract (or other acceptable identifier) extends beyond the boundaries of a license area, a licensee with authorizations for such areas may include only the population within the Census Tract (or other acceptable identifier) towards meeting the performance requirement of a single, individual license.

(b) A 900 MHz broadband licensee must meet either a population coverage requirement or geographic coverage as follows:

(1) Population metric. (i) A 900 MHz broadband licensee shall provide reliable signal coverage and offer broadband service to at least 45% of the population in its license area within six years of license grant.

(ii) A 900 MHz broadband licensee shall provide reliable signal coverage and offer broadband service to at least 80% of the population in its license area within 12 years of license grant.

(2) Geographic coverage. Alternatively, a 900 MHz broadband licensee may:

(i) Demonstrate it provides reliable signal coverage and offers broadband service covering at least 25% of the geographic license area within six years of license grant.

(ii) Demonstrate it provides reliable signal coverage and offers broadband service covering at least 50% of the geographic license area within twelve years of license grant.

(c) Penalties. (1) If a 900 MHz broadband licensee fails to meet the first performance benchmark, we require the licensee to meet the final performance benchmark two years sooner (i.e., at 10 years into the license term) and reduce the license term from 15 years to 13 years.

(2) If a 900 MHz broadband licensee fails to meet the final performance benchmark, its authorization for that license area will terminate automatically without Commission action.

(d) License renewal. After satisfying the 12-year, final performance benchmark, a licensee must continue to provide coverage and offer broadband service at or above that level for the remaining three years of the 15-year license term in order to warrant license renewal.

The 897.5-900.5 MHz and 936.5-939.5 MHz band segments are available for licensing with an authorized bandwidth up to 3 megahertz paired channels. The 897.5-900.5 MHz segment must only be used for uplink transmissions. The 936.5-939.5 MHz segments must only be used for downlink transmissions.

(a) Maximum ERP. The power limits specified in this section are applicable to operations in areas more than 110 km (68.4 miles) from the U.S./Mexico border and 140 km (87 miles) from the U.S./Canada border.

(1) General limit. (i) The ERP for base and repeater stations must not exceed 400 watts/megahertz power spectral density (PSD) per sector and an antenna height of 304 m height above average terrain (HAAT), except that antenna heights greater than 304 m HAAT are permitted if power levels are reduced below 400 watts/megahertz ERP in accordance with Table 1 of this section.

(ii) Provided that they also comply with paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, licensees are permitted to operate base and repeater stations with up to a maximum ERP of 1000 watts/megahertz power spectral density (PSD) per sector and an antenna height of 304 m height above average terrain (HAAT), except that antenna heights greater than 304 m HAAT are permitted if power levels are reduced below 1000 watts/megahertz ERP in accordance with Table 2 of this section.

(2) Rural areas. For systems that are located in counties with population densities of 100 persons or fewer per square mile, based upon the most recently available population statistics from the Bureau of the Census:

(i) The ERP for base and repeater stations must not exceed 800 watts/megahertz power spectral density (PSD) per sector and an antenna height of 304 m height above average terrain (HAAT), except that antenna heights greater than 304 m HAAT are permitted if power levels are reduced below 800 watts/megahertz ERP in accordance with Table 3 of this section.

(ii) Provided that they also comply with paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, base and repeater stations may operate with up to a maximum ERP of 2000 watts/megahertz power spectral density (PSD) per sector and an antenna height of 304 m height above average terrain (HAAT), except that antenna heights greater than 304 m HAAT are permitted if power levels are reduced below 2000 watts/megahertz ERP in accordance with Table 4 of this section.

(3) Mobile, control and auxiliary test stations. Mobile, control and auxiliary test stations must not exceed 10 watts ERP.

(4) Portable stations. Portable stations must not exceed 3 watts ERP.

(b) Power flux density (PFD). Each 900 MHz broadband base or repeater station that exceeds the ERP limit of paragraph (a)(1)(i) or (a)(2)(i) of this section must be designed and deployed so as not to exceed a modeled PFD of 3000 microwatts/m 2/MHz over at least 98% of the area within 1 km of the base or repeater station antenna, at 1.6 meters above ground level. To ensure compliance with this requirement, the licensee must perform predictive modeling of the PFD values within at least 1 km of each base or repeater station antenna prior to commencing such operations and, thereafter, prior to making any site modifications that may increase the PFD levels around the base or repeater station. The modeling must take into consideration terrain and other local conditions and must use good engineering practices for the 900 MHz band.

(c) Power measurement. Measurement of 900 MHz broadband base transmitter and repeater ERP must be made using an average power measurement technique. Power measurements for base transmitters and repeaters must be made in accordance with either of the following:

(1) A Commission-approved average power technique (see FCC Laboratory's Knowledge Database); or

(2) For purposes of this section, peak transmit power must be measured over an interval of continuous transmission using instrumentation calibrated in terms of an rms-equivalent voltage. The measurement results shall be properly adjusted for any instrument limitations, such as detector response times, limited resolution bandwidth capability when compared to the emission bandwidth, sensitivity, etc., so as to obtain a true peak measurement for the emission in question over the full bandwidth of the channel.

(d) PAR limit. The peak-to-average ratio (PAR) of the transmission must not exceed 13 dB.

(e) Height-power limit. As specified in paragraph (a) of this section, the following tables specify the maximum base station power for antenna heights above average terrain (HAAT) that exceed 304 meters.

The predicted or measured median field strength must not exceed 40 dBµV/m at any given point along the geographic license boundary, unless the affected licensee agrees to a different field strength. This value applies to both the initially offered service areas and to partitioned service areas.

The power of any emission outside a licensee's frequency band(s) of operation shall be attenuated below the transmitter power (P) in watts by at least the following amounts:

(a) For 900 MHz broadband operations in 897.5-900.5 MHz band by at least 43 + 10 log (P) dB.

(b) For 900 MHz broadband operations in the 936.5-939.5 MHz band, by at least 50 + 10 log (P) dB.

(c) Compliance with the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section is based on the use of measurement instrumentation employing a resolution bandwidth of 100 kHz or greater. However, in the 100 kHz bands immediately outside and adjacent to the licensee's band, a resolution bandwidth of at least 1 percent of the emission bandwidth of the fundamental emission of the transmitter may be employed. The emission bandwidth is defined as the width of the signal between two points, one below the carrier center frequency and one above the carrier center frequency, outside of which all emissions are attenuated at least 26 dB below the transmitter power.

(d) The measurements of emission power can be expressed in peak or average values, provided they are expressed in the same parameters as the transmitter power.

(e) When an emission outside of the authorized bandwidth causes harmful interference, the Commission may, at its discretion, require greater attenuation than specified in this section.

See 47 CFR 90.672.