The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) filed comments April 26 with the FCC in response to a filing the week before by T-Mobile opposing the SBE's petition for reconsideration of a March 8 order regarding Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) stations.
The T-Mobile filing argued that the SBE petition for reconsideration was not filed within the allotted time. The latest SBE filing rejects that assertion, saying that the order, as of the latest filing, had not yet appeared in the Federal Register, and thus the 30-day window for filing a timely petition for reconsideration had not even opened.
The SBE opposes the AWS order because of the potential to introduce harmful interference to ENG operations on 2GHz TV BAS channels. In its petition for reconsideration, the society pointed out that the situation has moved from theoretical to actual, with AWS station operation at 2.1GHz in Queens, NY, causing interference to WABC-TV ENG operations on TV BAS Channel A7.
In its latest filing, the SBE reiterated its position that the commission had previously aggregated rulemaking docket numbers as well as changed docket numbers. Regardless, the society asserts it filed timely comments and reply comments regarding a particular docket that was aggregated with other AWS dockets, and that as a result, its input should be considered.
Additionally, the SBE's latest filing argues that when the commission combined a particular docket into another with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, it "provided a new opportunity for all interested parties to file comments regarding AWS stations in all of the AWS bands, from 1.7 to 2.1GHz," which is what the SBE did, according the society's latest comments.
For more information, visit www.sbe.org.
