§  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 § 22.725 is considered to be in the same
   area as another central office station transmitter on any other channel
   pair listed in § 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 § 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