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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of Application of ) ) FRED DANIEL D/B/A ORION TELECOM ) File No. 852009 ) For an Automated Maritime Telecommunications ) System Station at Corona, California) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: March 9, 1999 Released: March 10, 1999 By the Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau: I. INTRODUCTION 1. On June 10, 1998, Fred Daniel d/b/a Orion Telecom (Orion) filed a license application for an Automated Maritime Telecommunications System (AMTS) station at Corona, California. On July 30, 1998, KCOP Television, Inc. (KCOP), licensee of a Los Angeles, California, Channel 13 Television Station, filed a petition to deny the application. For the reasons discussed below, we grant Orion's license application on the condition that the station's effective radiated power not exceed ten watts. II. BACKGROUND 2. AMTS stations provide automated, integrated, interconnected ship-to-shore communications similar to a cellular phone system for tugs, barges, and other maritime vessels. In establishing the rules permitting AMTS stations, the Commission considered the potential for interference to television reception, particularly Television Channels 10 and 13 because of the proximity of AMTS channels to these television channels, and conditioned the operation of AMTS coast stations on the requirement that no harmful interference be caused to television reception. Under the Commission's Rules, an applicant proposing to locate an AMTS station within 169 kilometers (105 miles) of a Channel 13 television station must submit an engineering study demonstrating the means used to avoid interference within the television station's Grade B contour. In addition, any AMTS licensee that despite these precautions causes interference to television reception within the television station's Grade B contour must cure the problem within ninety days or cease operations, and must help resolve complaints of interference outside the television station's Grade B contour. 3. Orion already operates AMTS stations in Southern California, including facilities at Mount Wilson (from which KCOP transmits), and Santiago Peak, which is about forty-seven miles southeast of Mount Wilson. Orion states, and KCOP does not dispute, that there have been no reports of these stations causing harmful interference to television reception. In addition, we recently authorized Orion to operate stations at Signal Peak, about forty-five miles south-southeast of Mount Wilson, and San Clemente, about sixty-one miles south-southeast of Mount Wilson, but we limited the stations' effective radiated power (ERP) to ten watts. Orion proposes to add a station at Corona, about thirty-six miles southeast of Mount Wilson, eleven miles north of Santiago Peak, twenty-three miles northeast of Signal Peak, and twenty-eight miles north of San Clemente, and within KCOP's Grade A contour. The proposed station is intended to fill in a gap in the coverage of Orion's Santiago Peak station caused by rugged terrain. KCOP states, and Orion does not dispute, that there are 2,457,106 people within both KCOP's Grade B contour and the proposed Corona station's predicted interference contour. III. DISCUSSION 4. KCOP first argues that the application should be denied because Orion has not established a need for a Corona station. KCOP argues that the proposed station will create additional interference without significantly expanding Orion's coastal coverage beyond that already provided by Orion's nearby Santiago Peak station, and that Orion has not demonstrated the existence of a coverage gap. We find that these arguments are misplaced, for we agree with Orion that the AMTS rules do not require such a showing. In fact, we believe that Orion would be entitled to add a station to its West Coast system simply to create additional capacity, even if that capacity is intended primarily to serve land units, provided that the station complies with our rules. Moreover, Orion represents that the station will improve the coverage area of its West Coast system. 5. Conversely, KCOP states that the application should be denied because Orion, having admitted that there is a gap in the coverage provided by its West Coast system, does not satisfy the requirement that an AMTS applicant proposing to serve a coastline provide continuity of service to a substantial navigational area. "[C]ontinuity of service means service that keeps the vessel traveling along that . . . substantial navigational area constantly or almost constantly in range of an AMTS station." Consequently, we believe that inconsequential gaps are permissible. KCOP has not demonstrated that Orion's West Coast system does not keep vessels at least "almost constantly" in AMTS range. Moreover, that terrain causes shadows over pockets of the route does not mean that a vessel, by navigating around those pockets, cannot stay in AMTS range along its entire voyage. Thus, we find that this KCOP argument fails also. 6. Where, as here, there are at least one hundred residences within both a proposed AMTS station's predicted interference contour and a Channel 13 television station's Grade B contour, the AMTS applicant must (1) show that the proposed site is the only suitable location, (2) develop a plan to control any interference its operations cause within the Grade B contour, and (3) agree to make any necessary adjustments to affected television receivers to eliminate such interference. 7. KCOP contends that the application should be denied because Orion has not demonstrated that Corona is the only suitable location. KCOP contends that Santa Catalina Island, about sixty-two miles south- southwest of Mount Wilson and twenty-nine miles offshore, also is a suitable location for an AMTS station, because it would provide coverage to the coastal and inland areas proposed to be served by the Corona station without creating widespread interference to KCOP. We reject this argument for the same reasons we rejected it when KCOP argued that Catalina was a suitable location for the Signal Peak and San Clemente stations -- that a station on the island would have to operate at high power in order to serve coastal areas, which would increase the potential for interference to television reception on the island and to Orion's other Southern California stations. 8. Finally, KCOP argues that Orion's plan to control interference is inadequate. Orion plans to install channels in reverse order of frequency, installing the highest frequencies (i.e., those farthest away from the Channel 13) first, and moving downward in frequency only as required by subscriber demand; and Orion will investigate any viewer complaints, and make such adjustments to television receivers as may be necessary to eliminate interference caused by its operations. We held in the San Clemente Order that, pursuant to Section 80.215(h)(3) of the Commission's Rules, an application for a proposed AMTS station with one hundred residences within both its predicted interference contour and a Channel 13 Television Station's Grade B contour should be granted "only under exceptional circumstances, and the stringency of the plan to control interference [must] be commensurate with the number of potentially affected residences." The same plan to control interference as Orion proposes for the Corona station was deemed insufficient to merit unconditional grant of the Signal Peak and San Clemente applications, in light of the number of potentially affected residences at issue in that case. There are many more residences within both KCOP's Grade B contour and the proposed Corona station's interference contour than there were within both KCOP's Grade B contour and the interference contours proposed for the Signal Peak and San Clemente stations, and the proposed Corona site is somewhat closer to KCOP's transmitter than those sites are. Consequently, we conclude that this plan also is insufficient to merit unconditional grant of the application. 9. We agree with KCOP, however, that the application can be granted if the station is not permitted to operate with more than ten watts ERP. We imposed the same power limitation on the Signal Peak and San Clemente stations because Orion's plan to control interference did not merit unconditional grant of the applications, and Orion noted that ten watts ERP would be sufficient for the stations to fill the coverage gaps they were intended to fill. Though we acknowledge that Orion has not specifically suggested that ten watts would be sufficient with regard to the proposed Corona station, it does state that the proposed location is "close to" the coverage gap it is intended to fill. Moreover, our analysis indicates that, so limited, the station still would satisfy the requirement that every AMTS station serve a waterway for which AMTS service may be provided (in this case, the Pacific Ocean). As we concluded with respect to the nearby Signal Peak and San Clemente stations, we find that this reduction in power level reduces the area of potential interference to the point where Orion's proposed plan, in conjunction with the requirements of our rules, will provide adequate protection against potential harmful interference to television reception. We further conclude that without a power limitation, the subject application would be denied for the reasons discussed herein. IV. CONCLUSION 10. Orion has demonstrated that the proposed site is the only suitable location, and has agreed to make any necessary adjustments to TV receivers. It has not, however, satisfied the third requirement for a proposed AMTS station with more than one hundred residences within its interference contour. After carefully reviewing Orion's applications and the pleadings filed in this proceeding, we find that Orion's plan to control harmful interference to television reception, which is the same plan Orion has proposed in cases where far fewer residences were at risk of interference, is inadequate to control the interference that could be caused by the proposed station operating at full power. Therefore, the application will be granted subject to the condition that the station's ERP not exceed ten watts along any radial. V. ORDERING CLAUSES 11. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to the authority of Sections 4(i) and 309 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  154(i) and 309, and Sections 1.958, 1.962, 1.971, 80.215, and 80.475 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  1.958, 1.962, 1.971, 80.215, 80.475, the Petition to Deny filed by KCOP Television, Inc. on July 30, 1998 IS GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART, and the application filed by Fred Daniel d/b/a Orion Telecom for authorization to construct and operate an Automated Maritime Telecommunications System station at Corona, California, on June 10, 1998 IS GRANTED ON THE CONDITION that the station's ERP not exceed ten watts along any radial. 12. This action is taken under delegated authority pursuant to Sections 0.131 and 0.331 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  0.131, 0.331. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION D'wana R. Terry Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division Wireless Telecommunications Bureau