[Hen] FW: NEBSA White Space Letter 10-06-2008

[Johnson, Bill]

Folks;
 
While the letter below is addressed to EBS licensees, it is even more important that the schools who are NOT licensees understand the value of supporting the NEBSA's comment letter to the FCC. Please consider the letter below from Lynn Rejniak, Chairperson of NEBSA.
 
Bill Johnson
Director of Network Operations - OneNet
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
e - bjohnson at onenet.net
o - 405.225.9437
c - 405.919.1718
v - 164.58.250.185
im - Yahoo - onenet_bill_johnson
 

________________________________

From: owner-nebsa-list at nebsa.org on behalf of chairman
Sent: Mon 10/6/2008 1:20 PM
To: nebsa-list at nebsa.org
Subject: NEBSA White Space Letter 10-06-2008



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October 6, 2008


Dear Members and EBS Licensees,


As reported to membership, NEBSA filed comments September 22, 2008 and
several options for white space were proposed. We believe that our plan
serves the interests of all EBS license holders and think it is critical
that the NEBSA proposal be strongly supported at the FCC, and I personally
urge each of you to participate.  It is our intention to file Reply Comments
and would welcome the opportunity to include EBS licensees in that filing.
What we need now is an indication whether or not you would like to join in
our filing.

NEBSA supports a licensing process by which the Commission would first
maximize existing licensees' Geographic Service Areas (GSAs). The automatic
expansion of the service areas of existing licensees would cover all of the
white space in the country, except for "pristine" Basic Trading Areas
(BTAs) - certain areas that currently have no licenses in them at all on
particular channels, which would remain available for later application by
any EBS-eligible entity.  The maximization process would in many cases
provide for a meaningful and instantaneous expansion of the service area of
EBS licensee station(s). 

Once the GSA maximization process is completed, for all remaining white
spaces (a total of 201 licenses that are specifically identified in the
NEBSA comments), the Commission would accept applications by any qualified
EBS applicants, on a channel group by channel group, BTA by BTA  basis. 
Thus, EBS licensees would be eligible to participate in filings for those
channels as well.  Any acceptable "singleton" applications would be granted,
and in the event of mutually exclusive applications, applicants would be
given an opportunity to settle their mutual exclusivities.  Any remaining
mutual exclusivities would go to the highest bidder in an auction, as
(unfortunately) required by law.

You may view the NEBSA filing in its entirety on the NEBSA website under the
Hot Topics section at http://www.nebsa.org or at the FCC's website:
by copying and pasting the following link into your browser
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520170090.


The deadline for submittal is October 22, 2008.  We would appreciate hearing
from you as soon as possible.  Please respond by e-mail to admin at nebsa.org
no later than close of business on Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

For questions about the NEBSA proposal and/or the Replay Comment filing,
please contact me or one of the NEBSA Regulatory Committee members:

Patrick Gossman  pastchair02 at nebsa.org
Steve Gorski       secretary at nebsa.org
Todd Gray          tgray at nebsa.org
Dave Moore         dmoore at nebsa.org
John Schwartz      Schwartz at nebsa.org



Regards,
                                                               
Lynn Rejniak
Chair NEBSA    
chairman at nebsa.org


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