The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureaus (Bureaus) have extended for 180 days, or until December 19, 2021, the 90-day filing window set in a January 19, 2021 Public Notice, for certain Part 22 and 90 incumbent applications in the 470-512 MHz spectrum (T-Band). In December 2020, President Trump signed a bill repealing the mandate that the FCC reallocate the T-Band for broadband service, and the FCC terminated the rulemaking proceeding. In the January 2021 Public Notice, the FCC set a timeline as to when it would resume processing applications and set a filing window during which it would accept incumbent applications from March 22, 2021 until June 21, 2021. The Bureaus will now accept incumbent applications until December 19, 2021. Such applications include minor modifications, Part 22 major modifications, and Part 90 applications proposing 12.5 kHz bandwidth or narrower, or employing a technology that achieves the narrowband equivalent. The 90-day filing window limiting applications to incumbents was intended to ensure the orderly resumption of licensing processes. For the same reasons, the Bureaus find it in the public interest to also limit the extended filing period to incumbent applications.
