[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 195 (Thursday, October 8, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54138-54139]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-27187]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[DA-98-1985]


Marine Frequencies for Land-Based Services.

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice; seeking comment.

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SUMMARY: Commission staff seeks comment on a request for waiver to 
permit land-based use of frequencies normally reserved for marine use.

DATES: Comments are due on or before October 14, 1998; reply comments 
are due on or before October 26, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Parties should file the original comments and reply comments 
with Magalie Roman Salas, Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, 
1919 M Street, NW, Room 222, Washington, D.C. 20554. Copies of each 
filing must be sent to International Transcription Services, Inc. 
(ITS), 1231 20th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036; Michael J. 
Wilhelm, Attorney-Advisor, Federal Communications Commission, Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, 
2025 M Street, NW, Room 8337, Washington, D.C. 20554 (or via e-mail to 
[email protected]); Henry Goldberg, Esq., Goldberg, Godles, Wiener and 
Wright, 1229 19th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; Mr. Peter Kierans, 
Vice President, Globe Wireless, 550 Pilgrim Drive, Foster City, CA 
94404; Dalton C. Fauver, Asst. to the President, Mobile Marine Radio, 
Inc., 7700 Rinla Avenue, Mobile, AL 36619-1199. The full text of the 
waiver requests, comments and reply comments will be available for 
public inspection and duplication during regular business hours in the 
Public Safety and Private Wireless Division of the Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, 2025 M 
Street, NW, Room 8010, Washington, DC 20554. Copies may also be 
obtained from ITS, 1231 20th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 
857-3800.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael J. Wilhelm, Policy and Rules 
Branch, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau at (202) 418-0860 or by e-mail to 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This public notice was released September 
29, 1998.
    On January 6, 1998, Technology for Communications International 
(TCI) filed a request for waiver of Sections Secs. 80.207 1 
and 80.453 2 of the Commission's Rules to enable it to use 
maritime frequencies for both maritime communications service and 
service to fixed and mobile transceivers on land, on a secondary, non-
interference basis, using 2K8D1D and 2K8F1D emission. The secondary 
service would be devoted to a tracking and messaging system for the 
commercial trucking industry. TCI estimates that 300,000 vehicles would 
use its proposed service and that 70 High Frequency (HF) channels, each 
with a 3 kHz bandwidth, would be required to serve those vehicles. The 
frequencies that TCI has requested are those available to maritime 
coast stations for facsimile transmission pursuant to Sec. 80.363(a)(2) 
of the Commission's Rules. According to TCI, the frequencies it has 
selected are not presently licensed to any U.S. maritime provider.
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    \1\ Sec. 80.207 deals with classes of emission for maritime ship 
and coast stations.
    \2\ Sec. 80.453 deals with the scope of communications of 
maritime coast and ship stations.
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    TCI requests a waiver of Sec. 80.207 of the Commission's Rules so 
that its proposed system may use 2K8D1D and 2K8F1D emission with 
``modern waveforms'' which, TCI asserts, would not cause objectionable 
interference to other users of the HF radiotelegraphy-facsimile bands. 
TCI proposes that each land station associated with the TCI system be 
provided with a TCI-issued letter acknowledging that the land station 
may operate under the authority of TCI's coast station license. The 
land station identifier would consist of the TCI coast station's call 
sign followed by a unique numeric or alphabetic identifier. The 
vehicular transceivers would be limited to an effective radiated power 
of 2 kilowatts, although 100 watts would typically be used, and the 
transceivers' antenna height above ground would be limited to 6.1 
meters. The vehicular transceivers would communicate only with the TCI 
public coast station and would cease operation upon TCI's being given 
written notice from the Commission that interference was being caused 
to marine communications. TCI represents that it will afford priority 
to marine-originating communications through ``an appropriate 
electrical or mechanical means.''
    The vehicular transceivers proposed by TCI would be tuned remotely, 
on command from TCI's proposed Promontory, Utah coast station, thereby 
to select an optimum frequency under varying propagation conditions. 
The TCI waiver request was accompanied by an application for the 
proposed Promontory, Utah, public coast station. Mobile Marine Radio 
(MMR) filed a Petition to Dismiss or Deny the TCI application alleging 
that the TCI system would cause interference to MMR's operations. Globe 
Wireless (Globe) filed letter comments contending that TCI's system 
should employ Part 90 land mobile frequencies and pointed out conflicts 
with some of the maritime frequencies selected by TCI. However, Globe 
supports secondary land mobile use of marine frequencies so long as 
that use is limited to incumbent public coast station licensees. TCI 
filed an opposition to the MMR petition and a response to the Globe 
letter comments.
    Interested parties may file comments on TCI's waiver requests on or 
before October 15, 1998. Parties wishing to file reply comments must do 
so before October 26, 1998. All filings must reference TCI's requests 
for waiver, must bear the DA number contained in the caption of this 
Public Notice and must be filed with the Office of the Secretary, 
Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street, NW, Room 222, 
Washington, D.C. 20554. Copies of each filing must be sent to the 
following:

International Transcription Services, Inc., (ITS), 1231 20th Street, 
NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Henry Goldberg, Esq., Goldberg, Godles, Wiener and Wright, 1229 19th 
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Dalton C. Fauver, Asst. to the President, Mobile Marine Radio, Inc., 
7700 Rinla Avenue, Mobile, AL 36619-1199
Michael J. Wilhelm, Attorney-Advisor, Federal Communications 
Commission, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public

[[Page 54139]]

Safety and Private Wireless Division, 2025 M Street, NW, Room 8337, 
Washington, D.C. 20554 (or via e-mail to [email protected])
Mr. Peter Kierans, Vice President, Globe Wireless, 550 Pilgrim Drive, 
Foster City, CA 94404

    The full text of the waiver requests, comments and reply comments 
will be available for public inspection and duplication during regular 
business hours in the Public Safety and Private Wireless Division of 
the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Federal Communications 
Commission, 2025 M Street, NW, Room 8010, Washington, DC 20554. Copies 
may also be obtained from ITS, 1231 20th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 
20036, (202) 857-3800.
    Because disposition of the TCI waiver request may affect other 
parties, e.g. users of the marine radio bands, other Public Coast 
station licensees and land mobile radio interests, we find that it 
would be in the public interest to treat this matter as a ``permit but 
disclose'' proceeding in accordance with the Commission's ex parte 
rules. See Section 1.1206 of the Commission's rules. Therefore, any ex 
parte communications that are made with respect to the issues herein 
will be permissible, but must be disclosed in accordance with Section 
1.1206(b) of the Commission's rules. Parties making oral presentations 
are reminded that a memorandum summarizing the substance of the 
presentation must be filed, in duplicate, with the Commission's 
Secretary no later than one business day after the presentation. Id.
    For further information, contact Michael J. Wilhelm of the Policy 
and Rules Branch, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division of the 
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, (202) 418-0870 or via e-mail to 
[email protected].
D'wana R. Terry,
Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division.
[FR Doc. 98-27187 Filed 10-7-98; 8:45 am]
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