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 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