FCC Record, Volume 27, No. 7, Pages 5674 to 6652, May 23 - June 15, 2012 Page: 5,816

                                
Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of                             )
Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands  )
)      ET Docket No. 04-186
Requests for Waiver of Section 15.712(b) to  )
Register Certain TV Receive Sites in the TV  )
Bands Database                               )
ORDER
Adopted: May 30, 2012                                              Released: June 1, 2012
By the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology
I.     INTRODUCTION
I. By this Order we grant in part and deny in part requests from eighteen parties to waive
Section 15.712(b) of the Commission's rules to register in the TV bands databases certain low power TV
and Multichannel Video Program Distributor (MVPD) receive sites that are more than 80 km outside the
protected contour of the TV stations that they receive.' The TV bands databases are used by fixed and
personal portable unlicensed devices to identify available channels at their specific geographic locations.
Our actions herein will protect incumbent services from interference without significantly impacting the
amount of spectrum available for TV bands devices.
II.    BACKGROUND
2. On September 23, 2010, the Commission adopted a Second Memorandum Opinion and Order
(Second MO&O) in ET Docket No. 04-186 that revised the rules for unlicensed wireless devices that
operate in the broadcast TV bands at locations where spectrum is unused by licensed services, particularly
broadcast television services.2 This unused TV spectrum is commonly referred to as television "white
spaces." The rules allow for the operation of unlicensed TV bands devices in unused TV spectrum to
provide broadband data and other services for consumers and businesses. To prevent interference to
authorized users of the TV bands, TV bands devices must include a geo-location capability and the
capability to access a database that identifies incumbent users entitled to interference protection,
including, for example, full power and low power TV stations, broadcast auxiliary point-to-point
facilities, Private Land Mobile Radio Service and Commercial Mobile Radio Service operations on
channels 14-20, and the Offshore Radiotelephone Service.3 The database will provide a TV bands device
Twenty-five parties filed waiver requests. As discussed below, we have determined that only eighteen parties
would need waivers to register their sites in the TV bands database. A list of parties filing waiver requests is in
Appendix B.
2 See Second Memorandum Opinion and Order in ET Docket No. 04-186, 25 FCC Red 18661 (2010).
See 47 C.F.R.  15.711. The rules also contain provisions for devices that rely on spectrum sensing to determine
available channels. See 47 C.F.R.  15.717.

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Federal Communications Commission

DA 12-845