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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 38 / Monday, March 1, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
public notice is released as we expect that the practical experience the International Bureau would gain in implementing the new framework will prove valuable and important in developing further guidance.
Non-U.S.-Licensed Satellites. We will allow non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators to obtain market access through a unified authorization.
Structurally, the unified authorization will consist of an earth station license and a grant of market access for the space station. This same formal licensing structure is possible today when a satellite operator files its own earth station license application and seeks satellite market access through the earth station application. In contrast with this current option, the unified authorization may only be held by a satellite operator, will exclude individually coordinated earth stations, and will be processed in IBFS using the filing options and procedures available to space station applications rather than earth station applications.
Blanket-Licensed Earth Stations.
Including blanket-licensed earth stations within a unified license would streamline the authorization of these earth stations without raising potential site-specific concerns, because the Commission has already determined that such earth stations may be deployed ubiquitously, without other operators knowing their precise locations. The unified license will merely capture this existing authority in a different type of license, without allowing any earth station operations that would be prohibited under the existing method of a blanket earth station license. Therefore, no other services will be affected by permitting such operations under a blanket license.
Accordingly, we will allow any type of earth station operation eligible for blanket licensing to be included in a unified license.
Individually Coordinated Earth Stations. Although the Commission proposed to include in the unified license conditional authority for earth stations that must be individually coordinated and are not eligible for blanket licensing, we decline to adopt this proposal. For one, we find that many of the benefits of such a proposal such as linking the deployment of those earth stations to the deployment of the associated satellite, and thereby allowing the satellite operator to secure its gateway earth station locations several years earlier than the current licensing process are better addressed more directly for example, by modifying earth station build out requirements. For another, we find that
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adding such earth stations to a unified license would create more complexity than its streamlining benefit. Whether included in a unified license or not, a separate earth station filing would be required to provide the necessary sitespecific information. Further, under the earth station certification proposal we adopt below, an earth station license applicant could similarly take advantage of the information provided in a corresponding space station application to omit any data that is duplicative.
Therefore, it could be that the filings for individually coordinated earth stationswhether as part of a unified license or separately licensed using the certification procedurewould be similar in terms of the information provided, if not identical. At the same time, creating a new category of earth station filings would impose burdens on Commission resources. Therefore, in light of the possible complication that separate earth station filings would bring to a unified license framework, and the potentially marginal reduction in application burdens, we decline to adopt the proposal for individually coordinated earth stations.
In short, unified licensing will not be available in any frequency bands in which blanket earth station licensing is not permitted. In such bands, earth stations will continue to be licensed separately from space stations.
Application Requirements. To add blanket-licensed earth station authority to a space station license or market access grant, the satellite operator would need to provide only the additional information required in an equivalent earth station application, but which is not already covered by what was filed for the space station. This includes, for example, any certification under 47 CFR 25.115i that the use of a contention protocol in an earth station network will be reasonable, because that certification is not covered by the information provided in a space station license application. Submission of an earth station Form 312 Schedule B
would not be required. As stated in the proposed rule, in applications where the satellite operator certified compliance with the two-degree spacing power limits under 47 CFR 25.140a3iiv, for example, the applicant would not need to provide any additional information on earth station antenna performance or verified performance currently required by 47 CFR
25.115g1 or 25.132 because the certification already attests to compliance with the power limits involved in those additional showings.
Further instances of redundancy will necessarily be reviewed by Commission
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staff on a case-by-case basis initially, given that, at the urging of commenters, we are making the unified license option widely available across several different services and types of operation, each with distinct earth station and space station information requirements. The goal of this review will be to streamline, as far as possible within current rules, the earth station information required. We also note that a unified license may be granted in the absence of default power limits, based on the technical showings provided, and that nothing about the unified license would change the application of section 25.140d to space stations authorized in, or outside of, a unified license.
Control of Earth Stations. Terrestrial operators may address questions or concerns to the satellite operator directly, as holder of the unified license, or to the Commission. Today, many satellite licensees are already held responsible for compliance with earth station power limits for their satellite networks. Further, it is common practice in satellite service contracts for the satellite operator to specify and require third party earth station operators to adhere to technical parameters consistent with its license, coordination agreements and the efficient technical use of its network.
We continue to believe that contractual provisions are sufficient to hold the unified licensee as the responsible entity. Therefore, we do not find any basis in the record to modify our rules regarding the control of earth stations.
Fees. As an initial matter, we note that there is an ongoing, comprehensive Commission rulemaking involving updates and additions to the application fee schedules. The interim fee decisions taken in this Report and Order will be considered in the larger application fee rulemaking, and may change significantly based on the analyses conducted there. In adopting a unified license framework, however, we must determine an initial treatment with respect to our application-fee requirements.
A unified license application will contain all the information necessary to assess the proposed operation of the space stations and blanket-licensed earth stations in the satellite system, consistent with our rules. Commission staff will review both the space and ground components of the satellite system, and commenters may raise issues regarding either component to be resolved in the licensing decision.
Because we anticipate that processing a unified license application will involve similar Commission resources to the
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