In May 2002, the FCC announced certain changes in the rules governing the Multi Use Radio Service (MURS). These changes were the FCC's response to three Petitions for Reconsideration that parties (including PRSG) had filed earlier.
These rules finally went into effect November 12, 2002. Click here for a discussion of these rules, and a PRSG-annotated copy of the FCC Report and Order that implemented these new rules.
When PRSG reviewed the new rules, we identified about a dozen topics that needed further consideration or clarification. Only three, in our opinion. would need actual changes in the FCC Rules. (We felt that we could obtain a clarification of the other topics informally.)
PRSG then filed a Petition for Reconsideration (included below) requesting that the FCC formally reconsider these three specific aspects of the recently implemented changes. (The FCC's version of our Petition suffers from several typographical errors introduced during the process of their OCR scanning of our printed version. We recommend that you use our more accurate version instead.)
The FCC acknowledged our Petition, and (by announcement in the Federal Register) set a comment deadline of July 10, 2003. Below is the text of that Petition.
PRSG filed Reply Comments on July 21, 2003.
Before the
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Washington, DC 20554
In the Matter of )
)
1998 Biennial Regulatory Review -- ) WT Docket No. 98-182
47 C.F.R. Part 90 - Private Land Mobile ) RM-9222
Radio Services )
PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION
Filed by: Personal Radio Steering Group, Inc.
PO Box 2851
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
(734) 662-4533
E-mail: prsg@provide.net
Date: November 12, 2002
====================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Paragraph No.
I. Background of the Commenter. 1
II. The Language of the Memorandum Opinion and Order and Second 4
Report and Order Pertaining to Network Interconnection Is
Imprecise and Antiquated.
III. New Equipment Standards Would Permit Expansion of Performance 11
Requirements That Would Enhance Rules Compliance.
IV. Licensees Previously Granted Privileges That Exceed Those 15
Permitted Under the New Rules Should Continue To Be Licensed
and Required To Identify by FCC-Assigned Callsign.
V. Certification. 19
===============================================================
I. BACKGROUND OF THE COMMENTER.
1. The Personal Radio Steering Group, Inc. (PRSG) is an all-volunteer,
not-for-profit Michigan corporation established in 1980 by licensees in the
General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS, FCC Part 95-A) to provide services to
and to serve as an advocate for users of the FCC's personal radio services.
2. The PRSG has published more than 300 different guides to GMRS
licensing, technology and operating practices in the various personal radio
services. PRSG's flagship publication, the GMRS NATIONAL REPEATER GUIDE,
lists the more than 3,500 GMRS repeaters, their sponsors, technical
characteristics and detailed coverage information. The GUIDE has become
the essential reference to this cooperative, nonprofit communications
network for licensed private individuals. PRSG also works closely with
major land mobile equipment manufacturers to disseminate instructional
materials for radio purchasers.
3. PRSG brings issues in this PETITION which have arisen since the first
Report and Order in this Docket, issues for which there has been no prior
opportunity for public comment.
II. THE LANGUAGE OF THE MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER AND SECOND
REPORT AND ORDER PERTAINING TO NETWORK INTERCONNECTION IS
IMPRECISE AND ANTIQUATED.
4. In the Memorandum Opinion and Order and Second Report and Order
(MO&O/SR&O), the FCC adopted the following language:
"MURS stations are prohibited from interconnection with the
public switched network. Interconnection Defined. Connection
through automatic or manual means of multi-use radio stations
with the facilities of the public switched telephone network
to permit the transmission of messages or signals between
points in the wireline or radio network of a public telephone
company and persons served by multi-use radio stations.
Wireline or radio circuits or links furnished by common
carriers, which are used by licensees or other authorized
persons for transmitter control (including dial-up transmitter
control circuits) or as an integral part of an authorized,
private, internal system of communication or as an integral
part of dispatch point circuits in a multi-use radio station
are not considered to be interconnection for purposes of this
rule part."
5. What the new rule language does not directly address is the
permissibility of transmitting signals to or from networks other than
the public switched telephone network (PSTN), IF those allegedly
private networks themselves are (in turn) directly interconnected
with (or even if they just share) resources of the PSTN. Also not
addressed is what should constitute a "private" network if one such
network can be voluntarily and spontaneously connected by network
users with some other, allegedly private network. Some MURS users
want to argue that if the very first user connection is not directly
with the PSTN itself, such private network interfacing should be
considered permissible, even if the subsequent resulting and often
user-transparent networking may share resources with or otherwise be
entirely interconnected with the PSTN itself.
6. In today's complex world of networks, there are many PSTN-
emulating networks (such as those supplied by cable television
providers and others, but including ANY that provide connection
with the Internet) that provide services to the public that are or
can easily be made to be essentially identical to those of the PSTN,
whether or not they eventually may actually interconnect to network
components of the PSTN. A MURS station interconnected to such a network
would be merely "a portal" for access to or from one such private
network to another, even if such an interconnection operates in a
manner identical (for all apparent purposes) as if it were operating
through resources the PSTN. Although these alternative networks are
not part of the PUBLIC switched telephone network, neither are they
truly "private," since they can often readily connect to each other
(in a voluntary and user-requested manner), and often to the PSTN
itself. The Internet itself is such "a network of networks."
7. There is no way for the casual observer, or even the MURS station
operator him/herself, to determine if a particular connection or
transmission involves the PSTN. The presence of dialtone and DTMF
signaling is not dispositive: Interconnection with the PSTN can occur
without rebroadcasting dialtone and DTMF signaling, and the mere
presence of them does not necessarily indicate that the network is
indeed part of the PSTN.
8. Furthermore, with voice-over-Internet protocols (VOIP) now widely
available, even a two-way, voice-type communication can be conducted
entirely independent of the PSTN, while yet retaining all of the PSTN
network's basic characteristics.
9. What this argues is that the Commission needs to modify its current
approach of granting or denying network access in MURS based solely on
the first-phase network topology. Instead, the Commission needs to
address this issue from a more basic position: Under what conditions
(and with what limitations) should the Commission permit a MURS station
to transmit messages or data coming other than from a specific person
locally controlling a specific MURS transmitter, what we could
characterize as a "one person/one push-to-transmit button" station.
10. We note that the Commission's rules pertaining to the operation of
the frequencies now allocated to MURS essentially limited network
(including private network) interconnection previously by establishing
the maximum distance between the control point and the center of the
radiating antenna.
III. NEW EQUIPMENT STANDARDS WOULD PERMIT EXPANSION OF PERFORMANCE
REQUIREMENTS THAT WOULD ENHANCE RULES COMPLIANCE.
11. In the MO&O/SR&O, the Commission established entirely new performance
standards for MURS radios first type-approved after adoption of these new
rules. In rule 95.1307(d), the FCC identifies a particular requirement for
pre-transmission monitoring:
"MURS users shall take reasonable precautions to avoid causing
harmful interference. This includes monitoring the transmitting
frequency for communications in progress and such other measures
as may be necessary to minimize the potential for causing
interference."
12. We concur that such specific language requiring pre-transmission
monitoring is appropriate and desireable. We request that the Commission
"go the next step" and require that a certain capability be built into
all MURS radios subsequently type-approved for use in this service.
13. The requirement should be that no MURS station should be hardware
enabled to transmit IF that station's associated receiver is in any form
of selective muting. This should include ALL muting protocols, those
currently in use (such as CTCSS, DCS, tone-burst, etc.) and any future
muting protocols.
14. We request a requirement that the associated receiver must be
monitoring "open squelch" for a specified MINIMUM period of time (at least
several seconds) before the MURS station transmitter is enabled. The action
to unmute the receiver should not be a merely momentary control, such as a
"push-to-listen" (PTL) button wherein the receiver monitors "open squelch"
only so long as the operator continues to depress that button. This kind of
temporary control actually acts to DISCOURAGE the station operator from
continuing to monitor "open squelch" for the duration of the exchange, thus
risking to mask other subsequent co-channel communications of an emergency
nature to which the station operator must yield. Instead, the operator
action must unmute the receiver, and leave it unmuted, until either the
operator takes another action to remute the receiver, or until some minimum
period of time (perhaps ten seconds or longer) has lapsed since that
station's last transmission.
IV. LICENSEES PREVIOUSLY GRANTED PRIVILEGES THAT EXCEED THOSE PERMITTED
UNDER THE NEW RULES SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE LICENSED AND REQUIRED TO
IDENTIFY BY FCC-ASSIGNED CALLSIGN.
15. In the MO&O/SR&O, the FCC acknowledges that it had granted some
licenses previously on frequencies now allocated to MURS with operating
privileges that exceed those now permitted under the new rules. The rules
now "grandfather" such prior operations. However, MURS station operators
will have no way of knowing if the communications of others that they will
now observe as exceeding the restrictions of the present rules are
permissible due to such grandfathering.
16. We request that the FCC
a) retain these grandfathered licenses in place,
b) require the renewal of such licenses (to be eligible to operate
with those variances from current and future requirements),
c) require that parties operating under grandfathered privileges
identify their stations by FCC callsign, and
d) fully state the nature of these grandfathered privileges on the
FCC's publicly accessible license databases.
Only through such provisions will future MURS station operators be able
to distinguish whether or not certain other communications are permissible.
This is an essential element of self-enforcement for the users of this
radio service.
17. Since some of these prior licenses have already expired, and have not
been renewed (since MURS has been "authorized by rule" instead of "authorized
by license" for two years now), the Commission will need to offer those
entities so previously authorized a limited "grace period" within which to
request reinstatement of their former licenses.
18. The FCC should not permit any entity not previously licensed for the
frequencies now allocated to MURS to acquire such a license. Nor should any
entity previously licensed for these frequencies be permitted to add any
new conditions that would exceed the current privileges of MURS operations.
V. CERTIFICATION.
19. I certify that we are willing to receive replies to this PETITION
by electronic means at: prsg@provide.net
/s/
Corwin D. Moore, Jr.
Administrative Coordinator
Personal Radio Steering Group Inc.