Sec. 22.719  Additional channel policy for rural radiotelephone 
          stations.

    The rules in this section govern the processing of applications for 
central office stations that request a rural radiotelephone channel pair 
when the applicant has applied for or been granted an authorization for 
other rural radiotelephone channel pairs in the same area. The general 
policy of the FCC is to promote effective use of the spectrum by 
encouraging the use of spectrum-efficient technologies (i.e. BETRS) and 
by assigning the minimum number of channels necessary to provide 
service.
    (a) Transmitters in same area. Any central office station 
transmitter on any channel pair listed in Sec. 22.725 is considered to 
be in the same area as another central office station transmitter on any 
other channel pair listed in Sec. 22.725 if the transmitting antennas 
are located within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of each other.
    (b) Initial channel pairs. The FCC does not assign more than two 
channel pairs for new central office stations, unless there are more 
than eight rural subscriber stations to be served. Stations are 
considered to be new if there are no authorized transmitters on any 
channel listed in Sec. 22.725 controlled by the applicant in the same 
geographic area.
    (c) Additional channel pairs. Applications for central office 
station transmitters to be located in the same area as an authorized 
central office station controlled by the applicant, but to operate on a 
different channel pair(s) are considered as requests for additional 
channel pair(s) for the authorized central office station. The FCC may 
grant applications for additional channel pairs provided that the need 
for each additional channel pair (after the first two) is established 
and fully justified in terms of achieving the required grade of service 
(blocking probability), and the applicant demonstrates that there will 
still be adequate spectrum available in the area to meet realistic 
estimates of current and future demand for paging, two-way mobile and

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rural radiotelephone services. In the case of conventional rural 
radiotelephone central office stations, an explanation must be provided 
as to why BETRS technology is not being used instead of additional 
channel pairs.

               Conventional Rural Radiotelephone Stations