Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) OCOM CORPORATION ) FCC File No. 9405746 ) Point-to-Point Microwave Radio Service) Application for Station WLM230 (Dayton 6), ) Xenia, Ohio ) ORDER ON RECONSIDERATION Adopted: July 13, 1999 Released: July 14, 1999 By the Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau: I. INTRODUCTION 1. On December 4, 1997, OCOM Corporation (OCOM) requested the issuance of a corrected authorization for Station WLM230, located in Xenia, Ohio, to remove a secondary status condition for the path from Station WLM230 to Station WMR791, located in Yellow Springs, Ohio. OCOM operates a common-carrier point-to-point fixed microwave service (FMS) network in Ohio and surrounding regions. We will treat OCOM's letter as a petition for reconsideration and for the reasons set forth below grant the request. II. BACKGROUND 2. On January 16, 1992, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) proposing to reallocate portions of the 2 GHz band from FMS to emerging technology services, including the personal communications services (PCS). Part of that plan involves discouraging the construction of new FMS facilities in the 2 GHz bands while at the same time allowing the use of the spectrum until the PCS licensees are in a position to use it. Accordingly, the Commission proposed licensing all new FMS facilities in the 2 GHz band on a secondary basis only, as of the date of the NPRM. 3. On May 14, 1992, the Microwave Branch, Licensing Division of the former Private Radio Bureau issued a Public Notice stating that while new facilities would be licensed on a secondary basis, secondary status would not be accorded to stations that made certain minor or technical modifications of facilities licensed prior to January 16, 1992. Secondary status also would not be accorded in situations where additional links would be required to complete a communications network or where new facilities and/or frequencies were operationally connected to a network system licensed prior to January 16, 1992, when the applicant made a valid showing of its need for the new facilities. In these cases, the station would receive primary status. In a First Report and Order and Third Notice of Proposed Rule Making, released October 16, 1992, the Commission affirmed this approach. The Commission stated that existing 2 GHz facilities could make certain modifications and minor extensions and retain primary status, but that major extensions or expansions would result in a station receiving secondary status unless a special showing of need was made to justify primary status. 4. On April 20, 1994, OCOM filed two applications proposing to add to its network one new station at Yellow Springs, Ohio and to add two 2 GHz paths between the new station and its existing "Dayton 6" station, Station WLM230. On May 31, 1994, the new licenses were issued. 5. On February 17, 1995, as part of a package of three applications for modification, OCOM filed an application to modify its license for Station WLM230 because it was decreasing the antenna height for a 6 GHz path between Station WLM230 and another OCOM station at Huber Heights, Ohio. The modified licenses were granted on March 14, 1995, but the license for Station WLM230 lacked information regarding some paths that were previously licensed. On May 18, 1995, OCOM sent a letter requesting correction of the Station WLM230 authorization. 6. On May 30, 1995, a "corrected" license was issued for Station WLM230. For the first time, the license contained the following language: This authorization for any facilities authorized for frequency between 1850 to 2200 MHz is subject to the rules, procedures, and policies imposed by the Commission in ET Docket No. 92-9, including the operation of a facility at 1850 to 2200 MHz on a secondary, non- interference basis. 7. On December 4, 1997, OCOM requested a "corrected authorization" for Station WLM230 removing the secondary status condition from the 2 GHz path from Station WLM230 to OCOM's Station WMR791. OCOM noted that the license for Station WMR791 did not contain a secondary status condition with respect to the return 2 GHz path to Station WLM230. III. DISCUSSION 8. As we recently held in Contel Cellular of Nashville, Inc., the purpose of the above-quoted language in Paragraph 6 was to impose a condition on OCOM's license for Station WLM230 that the path at issue was to be operated on a secondary basis. We will treat OCOM's December 4, 1997, letter as a petition for reconsideration regarding the imposition of that condition. OCOM's request, coming two and a half years after the secondary status condition was placed on the license, ordinarily would be untimely. But as we decided in Contel, the above-quoted language did not provide sufficient notice to the affected license holders that their licenses were subject to a secondary status condition. Accordingly, for the reasons explained in Contel, the date from which the thirty-day filing requirement would begin to run has not yet been established in this case and OCOM's request is properly considered on the merits. 9. OCOM's April 20, 1994, application for a 2 GHz path between Station WLM230 and its new station at Yellow Springs was properly granted without a secondary status condition under the licensing policy then in effect because it was to be operationally connected to an existing FMS system and did not represent a major extension of that system. OCOM's February 17, 1995, application for modification of the antenna height for the 6 GHz path between Station WLM230 and the Huber Heights station did not affect the license for the 2 GHz path from Station WLM230 to Yellow Springs. Nor did OCOM's request for a corrected license (one correctly showing all of the paths licensed to Station WLM230) affect the license for the 2 GHz path from Station WLM230 to Yellow Springs. Accordingly, we conclude that a secondary status condition should not have been placed on OCOM's license for the path between Station WLM230 and Station WMR791 when the corrected license was issued on May 30, 1995. We will therefore grant OCOM's request for reconsideration and re-issue the license for Station WLM230 with primary status. IV. ORDERING CLAUSES 10. ACCORDINGLY, IT IS ORDERED that pursuant to Sections 4(i), 303(r) and 405 of the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C.  154(i), 303(r) and 405, and Sections 1.106 and 101.69 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R.  1.106 and 101.69, the License Correction Request of OCOM Corporation filed on December 4, 1997, IS GRANTED and the license for Station WLM230 will be re-issued with primary status. 11. 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