******************************************************** NOTICE ******************************************************** This document was converted from WordPerfect or Word to ASCII Text format. Content from the original version of the document such as headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, graphics, and page numbers will not show up in this text version. All text attributes such as bold, italic, underlining, etc. from the original document will not show up in this text version. Features of the original document layout such as columns, tables, line and letter spacing, pagination, and margins will not be preserved in the text version. 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 ) ) MOBILE RELAY ASSOCIATES, INC. ) ) Application for Authorization and ) File No. D100478 Petition for Reconsideration of License ) Granted to National Science and Technology ) Network, Inc. for Station WPLT688 at ) Glendale, California ) ORDER By the Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau: Adopted: December 16, 1999 Released: December 17, 1999 I. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. On February 27, 1998, Mobile Relay Associates, Inc. (MRA) filed a petition for reconsideration (Petition) of the grant of an application filed by the National Science and Technology Network, Inc. (NST) for Station WPLT688 at Glendale, California, utilizing frequency 472.8125 MHz. Specifically, MRA asks the Commission to (a) confirm that the NST application was improperly coordinated, (b) dismiss the NST application as defective, and (c) grant MRA's pending co-channel application. Based on the record in this proceeding, we find that there was no impropriety in the frequency coordination procedures associated with the subject application and we deny MRA's Petition. II. BACKGROUND 2. MRA operates Station WIL337 on frequency 472.8125 MHz in the Los Angeles area from locations at Saddle Peak and Sierra Peak. Previously, the frequency was shared with Laidlaw Transit, Inc. (Laidlaw), which operated Station KXK710 in Los Angeles County, California. Laidlaw's license expired on September 21, 1997, and was not renewed within thirty days, as the Commission's Rules then permitted. 3. On October 22, 1997, MRA submitted to the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) an application to modify its license for Station WIL337 to add two new sites, one at Mt. Lukens and one at Palos Verdes Peninsula, California. On November 25, 1997, NST submitted an application to use frequency 472.8125 MHz at Glendale, California, to the American Automobile Association (AAA) for frequency coordination. AAA states that it finished coordinating NST's application on or about December 9, 1997, and certified the application, pending the deletion of Station KXK710 from the Commission's data base. After confirming with the Commission's office in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that KXK710 had been deleted from the data base on December 10, 1997, NST's application was mailed on December 11, 1997, to the Commission's lockbox maintained by the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Commission's records show that NST's application was first received on December 17, 1997, and resubmitted on December 30, 1997. PCIA coordinated the subject MRA application and filed it with the Commission on January 14, 1998. NST was granted a license for Station WPTL688 at Glendale, California, on January 30, 1998. III. DISCUSSION 4. MRA seeks reconsideration of the grant of NST's application. MRA argues that the Commission intended, and all of the applicable frequency coordinators agreed, that in cases of an expired license, no frequency coordinator could certify any new application as coordinated until after the FCC officially purged the expired authorization from the licensing data base. MRA states that the problem with AAA's method is that once a frequency coordinator "certifies" an application, other coordinators are discouraged, if not prohibited, from certifying any conflicting application. MRA contends that under AAA's approach, the date the Commission actually purges the call sign from its licensing data base becomes irrelevant in the race among frequency coordinators, and each frequency coordinator soon will be certifying multiple applications as "coordinated" which may or may not ever be filed. MRA believes that, by prematurely certifying, other interested frequency coordinators will be precluded from acting unless they are convinced that the coordination will not stand review. MRA concludes that the application of NST was improperly coordinated prior to the purging of the license for Station KXK710 from the FCC's data base and that it would be inequitable for the Commission to affirm the grant of that license. MRA requests that NST's application be dismissed with prejudice, nunc pro tunc, and that MRA's pending co- channel application be granted. 5. PCIA also argues that the NST application was improperly coordinated. PCIA further states that, on November 20, 1997, it received a coordination notice from AAA making a frequency recommendation on NST's application. As a result, PCIA concludes that AAA coordinated NST's application prior to the availability of the frequency on December 10, 1997, the date on which the frequency was purged from the Commission's data base. PCIA also alleges that AAA post-dated the coordination to December 9, 1997, in order to attempt to be "first-in-line" when the license was deleted from the data base. 6. NST and AAA argue that the NST application was properly coordinated. In this regard, they note that the NST application was not mailed to the Commission until after AAA confirmed that the Station KXK710 authorization had been purged from the FCC's licensing data base. 7. Frequency coordination is the process by which private organizations recommend to the FCC the most appropriate frequency for an applicant in a designated radio service. The recommendations of frequency coordinators facilitate the FCC's efforts to promote optimum and efficient use of the available spectrum for the benefit of all members of the public. The Commission has stated that a channel associated with an expired license is available to all applicants on a first-come, first-served basis after the license associated with that channel is deleted from the FCC's data base. Although the Commission permits a frequency coordinator to select a channel associated with an expired license for recommendation to the Commission before the channel is actually available on the FCC's data base, any application seeking a channel that is not available on the data base at the time the application is received by the Commission will be denied. 8. A careful review of the facts does not reveal any impropriety by NST or AAA in this case. AAA concedes that the coordination process was complete before Laidlaw's license for Station KXK710 was deleted from the FCC's data base on December 10, 1997. However, NST's application was not received by the Commission until after the channel was available on the data base. Thus, AAA complied with the Commission's policy concerning the coordination and the receipt of applications for relinquished frequencies. IV. CONCLUSION 9. MRA has not demonstrated that NST's application for Station WPLT688 was improperly coordinated. Accordingly, we conclude that the public interest will best be served by affirming the grant of NST's application. Moreover, in light of this conclusion, MRA's pending co-channel application will be dismissed. V. ORDERING CLAUSES 10. IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to Section 4(i) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  154(i), the petition for reconsideration filed by Mobile Relay Associates, Inc., on February 27, 1998, IS DENIED. 11. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, pursuant to Section 4(i) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  154(i), application FCC File No. D100478, filed by Mobile Relay Associates on January 14, 1998, IS DISMISSED. 12. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, pursuant to Section 4(i) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  154(i), the informal petition, filed by Henry Radio Inc., on February 20, 1998, to dismiss or deny MRA's application, IS DISMISSED AS MOOT. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION D'wana R. Terry Chief, Public Safety and Private Wireless Division Wireless Telecommnications Bureau