Sec. 26.209  Eligibility for partitioned licenses.

    (a) Notwithstanding Sec. 26.102, an applicant that is a rural 
telephone company, as defined in Sec. 26.4, may be granted a GWCS 
license that is geographically partitioned from a separately licensed 
EA, so long as the EA applicant or licensee has voluntarily agreed (in 
writing) to partition a portion of the license to the rural telephone 
company.
    (b) If partitioned licenses are being applied for in conjunction 
with a license(s) to be awarded through competitive biding procedures--
    (1) The applicable procedures for filing short-form applications and 
for submitting upfront payments and down payments contained in this part 
and part 1 of this chapter shall be followed by the applicant, who must 
disclose as part of its short-form application all parties to 
agreement(s) with or among rural telephone companies to partition the 
license pursuant to this section, if won at auction (see 
Sec. 1.2105(a)(2)(viii));
    (2) Each rural telephone company that is a party to an agreement to 
partition the license shall file a long-form application for its 
respective, mutually agreed-upon geographic area together with the 
application for the remainder of the EA filed by the auction winner.
    (c) If the partitioned license is being applied for as a partial 
assignment of the EA license following grant of the

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initial license, request for authorization for partial assignment of a 
license shall be made pursuant to Sec. 26.324.
    (d) Each application for a partitioned area (long-form initial 
application or partial assignment application) shall contain a 
partitioning plan that must propose to establish a partitioned area to 
be licensed that meets the following criteria:
    (1) Conforms to established geopolitical boundaries (such as county 
lines);
    (2) Includes the wireline service area of the rural telephone 
company applicant; and
    (3) Is reasonably related to the rural telephone company's wireline 
service area.

    Note to paragraph (d)(3): A partitioned service area will be 
presumed to be reasonably related to the rural telephone company's 
wireline service area if the partitioned service area contains no more 
than twice the population overlap between the rural telephone company's 
wireline service area and the partitioned area.

    (e) Each licensee in each partitioned area will be responsible for 
meeting the construction requirements in its area (see Sec. 26.104).