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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules
microwave frequencies of the Broadband Radio Service BRS and Educational Broadband Service EBS
previously referred to as the Instructional Television Fixed Service ITFS.
BRSIn connection with the 1996
BRS auction, the Commission established a small business size standard as an entity that had annual average gross revenues of no more than $40 million in the previous three calendar years. The BRS auctions resulted in 67 successful bidders obtaining licensing opportunities for 493 Basic Trading Areas BTAs. Of the 67 auction winners, 61 met the definition of a small business. BRS also includes licensees of stations authorized prior to the auction. At this time, the Commission estimates that of the 61
small business BRS auction winners, 48
remain small business licensees. In addition to the 48 small businesses that hold BTA authorizations, there are approximately 86 incumbent BRS
licensees that are considered small entities 18 incumbent BRS licensees do not meet the small business size standard. After adding the number of small business auction licensees to the number of incumbent licensees not already counted, there are currently approximately 133 BRS licensees that are defined as small businesses under either the SBA or the Commissions rules.
In 2009, the Commission conducted Auction 86, the sale of 78 licenses in the BRS areas. The Commission offered three levels of bidding credits: i A
bidder with attributed average annual gross revenues that exceed $15 million and do not exceed $40 million for the preceding three years small business received a 15 percent discount on its winning bid; ii a bidder with attributed average annual gross revenues that exceed $3 million and do not exceed $15 million for the preceding three years very small business received a 25 percent discount on its winning bid; and iii a bidder with attributed average annual gross revenues that do not exceed $3 million for the preceding three years entrepreneur received a 35 percent discount on its winning bid. Auction 86 concluded in 2009 with the sale of 61 licenses. Of the ten winning bidders, two bidders that claimed small business status won 4
licenses; one bidder that claimed very small business status won three licenses; and two bidders that claimed entrepreneur status won six licenses.
EBSEducational Broadband Service has been included within the broad economic census category and SBA size standard for Wired Telecommunications
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Carriers since 2007. Wired Telecommunications Carriers are comprised of establishments primarily engaged in operating and/or providing access to transmission facilities and infrastructure that they own and/or lease for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video using wired telecommunications networks.
Transmission facilities may be based on a single technology or a combination of technologies. The SBAs small business size standard for this category is all such firms having 1,500 or fewer employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 3,117 firms that operated that year. Of this total, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000
employees. Thus, under this size standard, the majority of firms in this industry can be considered small. In addition to Census data, the Commissions Universal Licensing System indicates that as of October 2014, there are 2,206 active EBS
licenses. The Commission estimates that of these 2,206 licenses, the majority are held by non-profit educational institutions and school districts, which are by statute defined as small businesses.
Direct Broadcast Satellite DBS
Service. DBS service is a nationally distributed subscription service that delivers video and audio programming via satellite to a small parabolic dish antenna at the subscribers location.
DBS is included in the category of Wired Telecommunications Carriers.
The Wired Telecommunications Carriers industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in operating and/or providing access to transmission facilities and infrastructure that they own and/or lease for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video using wired telecommunications networks.
Transmission facilities may be based on a single technology or combination of technologies. Establishments in this industry use the wired telecommunications network facilities that they operate to provide a variety of services, such as wired telephony services, including VoIP services, wired cable audio and video programming distribution; and wired broadband internet services. By exception, establishments providing satellite television distribution services using facilities and infrastructure that they operate are included in this industry.
The SBA size standard considers a wireline business is small if it has fewer than 1,500 employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 indicates that 3,117 wireline companies were
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operational during that year. Of that number, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000 employees. Based on that data, the Commission concludes that the majority of wireline firms are small under the applicable SBA standard. Currently, however, only two entities provide DBS
service, which requires a great deal of capital for operation: DIRECTV owned by AT&T and DISH Network. DIRECTV
and DISH Network each report annual revenues that are in excess of the threshold for a small business.
Accordingly, the Commission must conclude that internally developed FCC
data are persuasive that, in general, DBS
service is provided only by large firms.
Wireless Telecommunications Carriers except Satellite. This industry comprises establishments engaged in operating and maintaining switching and transmission facilities to provide communications via the airwaves.
Establishments in this industry have spectrum licenses and provide services using that spectrum, such as cellular services, paging services, wireless internet access, and wireless video services. The appropriate size standard under SBA rules is that such a business is small if it has 1,500 or fewer employees. For this industry, U.S.
Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 967 firms that operated for the entire year. Of this total, 955 firms had employment of 999 or fewer employees, and 12 firms had employment of 1,000 employees or more. Thus, under this category and the associated size standard, the Commission estimates that the majority of wireless telecommunications carriers except satellite are small entities.
AWS Services 17101755 MHz and 21102155 MHz bands AWS1; 1915
1920 MHz, 19952000 MHz, 20202025
MHz and 21752180 MHz bands AWS
2; 21552175 MHz band AWS3. For the AWS1 bands, the Commission has defined a small business as an entity with average annual gross revenues for the preceding three years not exceeding $40 million, and a very small business as an entity with average annual gross revenues for the preceding three years not exceeding $15 million.
For AWS2 and AWS3, although the Commission does not know for certain which entities are likely to apply for these frequencies, it notes that the AWS1 bands are comparable to those used for cellular service and personal communications service. The Commission has not yet adopted size standards for the AWS2 or AWS3
bands but proposes to treat both AWS
2 and AWS3 similarly to broadband PCS service and AWS1 service due to the comparable capital requirements
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