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Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of )
)
CCS, LLC d/b/a Community Cable Service ) File No. EB-02-TS-
653
)
Operator of Cable Systems in: )
)
Connell, Washington )
Ione, Washington )
Lind, Washington )
Liberty Lake, Washington )
Kahlotus, Washington )
Odessa, Washington )
Ritzville,, Washington )
Tekoa, Washington )
Warden, Washington )
)
Request for Waiver of Section 11.11(a) of the )
Commission's Rules )
ORDER
Adopted: February 25, 2003 Released: March 3, 2003
By the Chief, Technical and Public Safety Division, Enforcement
Bureau:
1. In this Order, we grant CCS, LLC d/b/a Community Cable
Service (``CCS'') temporary waivers of Section 11.11(a) of the
Commission's Rules (``Rules'') for the nine above-captioned
cable television systems. Specifically, we grant a six-month
waiver for one cable system in Liberty Lake, Washington and
36-month waivers for the eight other captioned cable systems.
Section 11.11(a) requires cable systems serving fewer than
5,000 subscribers from a headend to either provide national
level Emergency Alert System (``EAS'') messages on all
programmed channels or install EAS equipment and provide a
video interrupt and audio alert on all programmed channels and
EAS audio and video messages on at least one programmed
channel by October 1, 2002.1
2. The Cable Act of 1992 added new Section 624(g) to the
Communications Act of 1934 (``Act''), which requires that
cable systems be capable of providing EAS alerts to their
subscribers.2 In 1994, the Commission adopted rules requiring
cable systems to participate in EAS.3 In 1997, the Commission
amended the EAS rules to provide financial relief for small
cable systems.4 The Commission declined to exempt small cable
systems from the EAS requirements, concluding that such an
exemption would be inconsistent with the statutory mandate of
Section 624(g).5 However, the Commission extended the
deadline for cable systems serving fewer than 10,000
subscribers to begin complying with the EAS rules to October
1, 2002, and provided cable systems serving fewer than 5,000
subscribers the option of either providing national level EAS
messages on all programmed channels or installing EAS
equipment and providing a video interrupt and audio alert on
all programmed channels and EAS audio and video messages on at
least one programmed channel.6 In addition, the Commission
stated that it would grant waivers of the EAS rules to small
cable systems on a case-by-case basis upon a showing of
financial hardship.7 The Commission indicated that waiver
requests must contain at least the following information: (1)
justification for the waiver, with reference to the particular
rule sections for which a waiver is sought; (2) information
about the financial status of the requesting entity, such as a
balance sheet and income statement for the two previous years
(audited, if possible); (3) the number of other entities that
serve the requesting entity's coverage area and that have or
are expected to install EAS equipment; and (4) the likelihood
(such as proximity or frequency) of hazardous risks to the
requesting entity's audience.8
3. CCS filed a request for temporary, six-month and 36-
month waivers of Section 11.11(a) for the nine captioned cable
systems on September 27, 2002. In support of its waiver
request, CCS states that these are small, rural cable systems.
CCS further states that the Liberty Lake, Washington system
serves 1,496 subscribers and the Connell, Ione, Kahlotus,
Lind, Odessa, Ritzville, Tekoa and Warden, Washington systems
serve between 22 and 518 subscribers. Additionally, CCS notes
that EAS equipment for its Liberty Lake system is on backorder
and will be installed upon delivery. Based on the $7,000
manufacturer price to install EAS equipment at Liberty Lake,
CCS estimates that it would cost approximately $56,000 to
install EAS equipment at the remaining eight cable systems for
a total cost of $63,000. CCS asserts that this cost will
impose a substantial financial hardship on it and provides its
financial statements for 2000, 2001 and 2002 in support of
this assertion. In addition, CCS submits that its subscribers
will continue to have ready access to national EAS information
from other sources, including its cable systems. In this
regard, CCS notes that its subscribers currently have access
to national EAS messages on at least 28 percent of all
programmed channels. CCS further submits that its subscribers
will have access to EAS information through over-the-air
reception of broadcast television and radio stations.
4. Based upon our review of the financial data and other
information submitted by CCS, we conclude that a temporary,
six-month waiver of Section 11.11(a) for the Liberty Lake,
Washington cable system is warranted, and temporary, 36-month
waivers of Section 11.11(a) for the eight other captioned
cable systems are warranted.9 In particular, we find that the
$63,000 cost of EAS equipment for these small cable systems
could impose a financial hardship on CCS.
5. We note that the Commission recently amended the EAS
rules to permit cable systems serving fewer than 5,000
subscribers to install FCC-certified decoder-only units,
rather than both encoders and decoders, if such a device
becomes available.10 Based on comments from equipment
manufacturers, we anticipate that such a decoder-only system
could result in significant cost savings to small cable
systems.11
6. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to Sections
0.111, 0.204(b) and 0.311 of the Rules,12 CCS, LLC d/b/a
Community Cable Service IS GRANTED a waiver of Section
11.11(a) of the Rules until April 1, 2003 for the cable
television system in Liberty Lake, Washington and IS GRANTED a
waiver of Section 11.11(a) of the Rules until October 1, 2005
for the cable television systems in the Connell, Washington;
Ione, Washington; Kahlotus, Washington; Lind, Washington;
Odessa, Washington; Ritzville, Washington; Tekoa, Washington,
and Warden, Washington.
7. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that CCS, LLC d/b/a Community
Cable Service place a copy of this waiver in its system files.
8. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this Order shall
be sent by Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested to counsel
for CCS, LLC d/b/a Community Cable Service Christopher C.
Cinnamon, Esq., Cinnamon Mueller, 307 North Michigan Avenue,
Suite 1020, Chicago, Illinois 60601.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Joseph P. Casey
Chief, Technical and Public Safety
Division
Enforcement Bureau
_________________________
1 47 C.F.R. § 11.11(a).
2 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of
1992, Pub. L. No. 102-385, § 16(b), 106 Stat. 1460, 1490 (1992).
Section 624(g) provides that ``each cable operator shall comply
with such standards as the Commission shall prescribe to ensure
that viewers of video programming on cable systems are afforded
the same emergency information as is afforded by the emergency
broadcasting system pursuant to Commission regulations ....'' 47
U.S.C. § 544(g).
3 Amendment of Part 73, Subpart G, of the Commission's Rules
Regarding the Emergency Broadcast System, Report and Order and
Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, FO Docket Nos. 91-171/91-
301, 10 FCC Rcd 1786 (1994) (``First Report and Order''),
reconsideration granted in part, denied in part, 10 FCC Rcd 11494
(1995).
4 Amendment of Part 73, Subpart G, of the Commission's Rules
Regarding the Emergency Broadcast System, Second Report and
Order, FO Docket Nos. 91-171/91-301, 12 FCC Rcd 15503 (1997)
(``Second Report and Order'').
5 Id. at 15512-13.
6 Id. at 15516-15518.
7 Id. at 15513.
8 Id. at 15513, n. 59.
9 The six-month waiver will extend from October 1, 2002, until
April 1, 2003, and the 36-month waivers will extend from October
1, 2002, until October 1, 2005. We clarify that the waivers we
are granting also encompass the EAS testing and monitoring
requirements.
10 Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission's Rules Regarding
the Emergency Alert System, EB Docket 01-66, FCC 02-64 at ¶ 71
(released February 26, 2002).
11 One manufacturer estimated that an EAS decoder-only system
can reduce the cost by 64% over what a cable operator would spend
for an encoder/decoder unit. Id. at ¶ 70.
12 47 C.F.R. §§ 0.111, 0.204(b) and 0.311.