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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. 852277 ) For an Automated Maritime Telecommunications ) System Station at Chicago, Illinois) 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 October 23, 1998, Fred Daniel d/b/a Orion Telecom (Orion) filed a license application for an Automated Maritime Telecommunications System (AMTS) station at Chicago, Illinois. On December 10, 1998, KM Communications, Inc., licensee of Chicago Low Power Channel 13 Television Station WOCK-LP (WOCK), submitted a petition to deny the application. For the reasons discussed below, we deny the application. 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 frequencies 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 is licensed to operate AMTS stations along lower Lake Michigan, at Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wisconsin; Michigan City, Indiana; and Muskegon, Michigan. In addition, Paging Systems, Inc. (PSI) is licensed to operate an AMTS station at Chicago, from the John Hancock Building (from which WOCK transmits). Orion proposes to add an AMTS station at the Sears Tower in Chicago, less than two miles from the Hancock Building. The proposed station is intended to supplement Orion's system's coverage to vessels in the Chicago area. WOCK states, and Orion does not dispute, that there are 2,053,657 people within both WOCK's Grade B contour and the proposed Sears Tower station's predicted interference contour. III. DISCUSSION 4. 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. 5. WOCK contends that the application should be denied because Orion has not demonstrated that the Sears Tower is the only suitable location. A party opposing an AMTS application on the grounds that the proposed site is not the only suitable location must present evidence of one or more suitable alternative locations. WOCK suggests that Orion can serve vessels in the Chicago area with stations in LaPorte County, Indiana or Berrien County, Michigan In this connection, however, we conclude that a location that would merely duplicate the coverage of an existing station, rather than improve the coverage in the manner intended by the proposed station, does not constitute a suitable alternative location. We believe that this is the appropriate conclusion even if its potential for interference to television reception is less than that of the proposed location. Moreover, we believe that a county is not a sufficiently specific alternative location. 6. In addition, WOCK states that the potential for interference would be minimized if, like PSI, Orion co-located its Chicago station with WOCK's transmitter on the Hancock Building and utilized a directional antenna with the same orientation as WOCK's. WOCK also suggests that even the use of an omnidirectional antenna on that site would at least reduce the potential for interference. While Orion replies that a directional antenna would not provide coverage to all of the vessels it intends to serve with the proposed station, Orion does not explain why it could not use an omnidirectional antenna at that site. Thus, based on the record before us, we find that the Hancock Building would be a suitable alternative site. Therefore, we conclude that the Sears Tower is not the only suitable location for the proposed AMTS station. 7. WOCK also 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 Television Channel 13) first, and moving downward in frequency only as required by subscriber demand. Further, Orion states that it will investigate any viewer complaints, and make such adjustments to television receivers as may be necessary to eliminate interference caused by its operations. As we noted in the San Clemente Order, such a plan had been deemed sufficient only when the proposed AMTS station was co-located with the potentially affected television station. We found in that case that Section 80.215(h)(3) of the Commission's Rules allows grant of 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 "only under exceptional circumstances, and requires that the stringency of the plan to control interference . . . be commensurate with the number of potentially affected residences." The same plan as that presented in the subject application was deemed insufficient to merit unconditional grant of the Orion applications addressed in the San Clemente Order, given the large number of potentially affected residences. Because in the present case there are significantly more residences within both WOCK's Grade B contour and the proposed AMTS station's predicted interference contour, we find that Orion's plan is insufficient to merit granting the Sears Tower application. IV. CONCLUSION 8. After carefully reviewing Orion's applications and the pleadings filed in this proceeding, we find that Orion has demonstrated neither that the proposed site is the only suitable location, nor that it has an adequate plan to control the interference that the proposed station could cause. Therefore, we conclude that Orion's subject application for an AMTS station at Chicago, Illinois should be denied. V. ORDERING CLAUSES 9. 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 KM Communications, Inc. on December 10, 1998 IS GRANTED, 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 Chicago, Illinois, on October 23, 1998 IS DENIED. 10. 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