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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 38 / Monday, March 1, 2021 / Rules and Regulations processing of individual space station applications and earth station applications making use of the new certification option we adopt below, we will assess a fee for unified license applications that is equal to the combined fees of the relevant space station license application and earth station blanket-license application. This treatment is intended to provide a simple, clear solution until the comprehensive Commission application fee rulemaking is completed. Because there are currently no fee codes in IBFS
for such combined fees, unified license applicants will need to pay the application fee manually.
In the case of a non-U.S.-licensed space station operator seeking a U.S.
earth station license in combination with its petition for market access, we willfor nowassess the earth station application fee schedule to such requests. This provides equal treatment with the similar, existing procedure of market access through an earth station application. However, we note the inconsistency and potential unfairness of assessing substantially lower fees to such market access requests than to U.S.
licensees, and intend to fully consider this and all application fee matters in the rulemaking dedicated to revising the Commissions application fees broadly.
In addition to application fees, the Commission also charges annual regulatory fees. These fees are based on licenses held at the end of the relevant fiscal year. The Commission recently concluded its fiscal year 2019 regulatory fee rulemaking, and sought comment on additional changes for future years. We note that the fiscal year 2019 report and order for the first time assessed the same regulatory fees against non-U.S.licensed satellite operators granted U.S.
market access as the Commission assesses to satellite operators holding a Commission space station license. We defer to a future regulatory fee proceeding the question of how to assess such fees to the new category of unified licenses.
B. Earth Station Certifications As an alternative or addition to the unified license proposal in the proposed rule, the Commission also asked whether it should permit applicants for GSO FSS earth station licenses to submit certifications of compliance with the terms and conditions of the communicating space station network as a substitute for filing the technical information required by Form 312, Schedule B. Such certifications would allow independent earth station operators to benefit from streamlined information requirements in a similar
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way as earth stations authorized through a unified license held by the satellite operator, while remaining responsible for compliance with its certification.
We believe that there is no general need for GSO FSS earth station applicants to submit technical information that is duplicative or unnecessary due to the information already provided for the satellite with which they will communicate.
Furthermore, and consistent with our decision above to expand the streamlining benefits of the unified license to additional services and types of operation, we see no general need to require such duplicative or unnecessary information for any earth station in any service when an appropriate certification of compliance with the satellite authorization is made.
With respect to the frequency bands to which this option will apply, we take an approach consistent with our decisions above regarding the unified license framework. Consistent treatment is appropriate because the same types of duplicative or unnecessary information may be omitted either through an earth station certification of compliance with the relevant satellite authorization or through a unified license application.
Accordingly, we will exclude from the earth station certification option FSS
operations under 10 GHz and operations subject to 47 CFR 25.136. We will include ESIM operations in the 28.35
28.6 GHz band because doing so will have no impact on the applicable outof-band emissions limits that affect UMFUS operations in the adjacent 27.5
28.35 GHz band.
Therefore, to conserve applicant and Commission resources while ensuring the necessary information remains on file with the Commission, we conclude it will serve the public interest to adopt a general provision for earth station licensing that an earth station applicant certifying that it will comply with the applicable terms and conditions of any space stations authorization with which it communicates need not provide technical demonstrations or other information made duplicative or unnecessary by the certification, with the exceptions just noted. This necessarily applies to many frequency bands because the requirement to submit technical data in Schedule B, specifically identified as a source of potentially unnecessary information in the proposed rule, is applicable by default to all applications for transmitting earth stations.
Applicants taking advantage of the certification option need not identify the information that is duplicative or unnecessary at this time. Given that we
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are excluding FSS bands below 10 GHz and bands shared with UMFUS, and that the vast majority of earth station applications are non-controversial and unopposed, such a requirement would lessen the streamlining benefits of the certification option without providing a compensating benefit. As under the unified license approach above, parties may raise questions on specific applications during the comment period. Finally, we believe that guidance the International Bureau may provide on the new earth station certifications, like on the unified license applications, would benefit from practical experience implementing the rules. We therefore decline to delay the effectiveness of the new rule.
C. Earth Station Build-Out Requirements In the proposed rule, the Commission identified a regulatory disconnect between the five-year deployment requirement for a GSO space station authorized in frequency bands subject to 47 CFR 25.136 and the one-year deployment requirement for earth stations communicating with such a satellite. The Commission proposed to align these build-out requirements. As proposed, an earth station authorized through 47 CFR 25.136 would have a build-out term defined as either the date the associated satellite becomes operational or one year, whichever is longer.
Scope. Considering the benefits of streamlining, regulatory certainty, and parity among different types of earth station licensees, we expand on the build-out term proposal in the proposed rule for earth stations licensed under 47
CFR 25.136 to include all blanketlicensed earth station operations eligible to be included in a unified license i.e., other than FSS below 10 GHz, and further to allow the same treatment for blanket earth station licenses and individual earth station licenses, which are not part of a unified license, with the same exception for FSS below 10
GHz where new earth station deployments have been significantly limited pursuant to the Commissions decisions to significantly increase development of terrestrial services in some of these bands. Although we excluded from the unified licensing option earth station operations that must be individually coordinated, these operations will benefit the most from extended build-out periods to ensure that the necessary siting locations remain available once the satellite is ultimately launched.
Bands Shared with UMFUS. Applying an extended build-out period to earth
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