Opinion ID: 2807858
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The pertinent statutory language calls for the

Text: Commission to “make all reasonable efforts to preserve, as of February 22, 2012, the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee, as determined using the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69.” 47 U.S.C. § 1452(b)(2). An understanding of petitioners’ and the Commission’s competing interpretations of that provision 9 requires a bit of background on the statute’s reference to “the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69.” That reference concerns a document, Bulletin No. 69, originally issued in 1977 by the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) and updated in 2004. Office of Eng’g & Tech., Fed. Commc’ns Comm’n, OET Bulletin No. 69, Longley-Rice Methodology for Evaluating TV Coverage and Interference (2004) (OET-69) (J.A. 490). OET-69 uses the Longley-Rice methodology, which “make[s] predictions of radio field strength at specific geographic points based on the elevation profile of terrain between the transmitter and each specific reception point,” to evaluate service coverage and interference between stations. Id. at 1 (J.A. 492). OET-69 notes the need for a computer program to make those calculations. Id. The computer program “takes certain inputs, including population data, geographical terrain data, and data about stations’ transmission facilities,” and applies the Longley-Rice model “to generate a station’s predicted coverage area and population served.” Order, ¶ 127. In the course of the Spectrum Act rulemaking, OET published a Public Notice announcing its development of a new computer program, called TVStudy, to perform interference analyses for broadcast stations in the reverse auction and the repacking process called for by the Spectrum Act. Office of Engineering and Technology Releases and Seeks Comment on Updated OET-69 Software, 28 FCC Rcd. 950 (2013) (TVStudy PN). OET explained that the TVStudy software would calculate television stations’ coverage areas and populations served using the methodology described in OET-69. Id. at 950. The Public Notice, along with OET’s corresponding notice in the Federal Register, see Office of Engineering and Technology Seeks Comment on Updated OET-69 Software, 78 Fed. Reg. 11,129 (Feb. 15, 2013), 10 sought comments on the new software program and also on proposals to update certain data inputs or to use new databases. Those improvements, OET explained, would serve “an important objective” by creating “software with improved accuracy . . . that makes use of the best available data to compute estimates of the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee.” TVStudy PN, 28 FCC Rcd. at 952. The Commission subsequently announced in its Order that it would use TVStudy for the reverse auction and repacking process. Order, ¶ 130. The Commission also announced that it would rely on population data from the 2010 U.S. Census to determine the population served by each broadcast station as of February 22, 2012. Id. ¶ 148. And the Commission decided to adopt most of the other updates and improvements proposed in OET’s Public Notice, including: using a new terrain elevation database maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (rather than the previous, and no-longermaintained, terrain database discussed in OET-69), id. ¶ 150; inputting actual antenna beam tilt data from each station (instead of applying a standard antenna tilt figure for all stations, as the computer program referred to in OET-69 had done), id. ¶ 153; and increasing the precision of the model’s geographic coordinates (rather than rounding those coordinates to the nearest second, as the computer program referred to in OET-69 had done), id. ¶ 155. The Commission explained that its decision to “update the computer software and input values used to implement the OET-69 methodology” accorded with the Spectrum Act’s “ambiguous” instruction to use “the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69” in determining a broadcast licensee’s coverage area and population served. Order, ¶¶ 133-34. The Order defines the “OET-69 methodology” as comprising: 11 “(1) a specification for determining a contour that defines the boundaries of a station’s coverage area, and (2) an algorithm for evaluating the availability of service within that contour, including the effects of interference from neighboring stations.” Id. ¶ 134 n.435. Or, as the Commission’s counsel described the methodology at oral argument: first, “you identify the signal contour”—that is, “the area that a [broadcast] signal of a particular strength covers”—next, “you chop that up into a grid” containing “a number of cells,” and then “you use the Longley-Rice propagation model to evaluate whether or not you actually get a viewable signal in those cells.” Oral Arg. Tr. 31. That “methodology” does not, in the Commission’s view, encompass the specific computer software (e.g., TVStudy) or input values (e.g., updated Census figures) used to “implement” it in any given instance. Order, ¶ 134. Petitioners read the statute differently. The relevant provision, as noted, calls for the Commission to undertake “all reasonable efforts” to “preserve, as of February 22, 2012, the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee, as determined using the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69.” 47 U.S.C. § 1452(b)(2). Petitioners interpret that language to mean that the Commission must endeavor to preserve a broadcaster’s coverage area and population served as they would have been calculated in implementing the OET-69 methodology on February 22, 2012. Petitioners submit that the OET-69 “methodology” is a “fixed suite of software and procedures that existed on February 22, 2012” and that the Commission must therefore apply OET-69 just as it would have been applied on that date. Pet’rs’ Br. 23. Petitioners therefore argue that the Commission is barred from making use of software improvements or alternate data inputs that the Commission was not using as of that date. 12 2. We first consider petitioners’ argument that the statute unambiguously compels that conclusion at Chevron step one. We agree with the Commission that the statutory text does not preclude the Commission’s decision to use the improved TVStudy software and more accurate and current data when determining a broadcast licensee’s coverage area and population served. The statutory term “methodology” is wholly consistent with the Commission’s understanding. That term is defined as “a body of methods, procedures, working concepts, rules, and postulates employed by a science, art, or discipline,” and “the processes, techniques, or approaches employed in the solution of a problem or in doing something.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (online ed. 2015). As the Commission explained in its Order, “[d]istinguishing between a ‘methodology’ and the ‘software’ and ‘inputs’ used for applying that methodology” is “consistent with the ordinary meaning” of each of those terms. Order, ¶ 134. And as the Commission further observed, while “the methodology described in OET-69 requires a computer program and data inputs,” those are “tools for applying” the methodology, not the methodology itself. Id. Petitioners contend that “the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69” is a regulatory term of art through which Congress unambiguously incorporated the precise software program and data inputs the Commission would have used to calculate a broadcast station’s coverage as of February 22, 2012. They maintain, for instance, that Congress unequivocally barred the FCC from using 2010 Census data when assessing a broadcaster’s population served. In other words, Congress, in petitioners’ understanding, compelled the Commission to calculate a broadcaster’s population coverage 13 based on obsolete figures from the 2000 Census rather than on up-to-date figures from 2010. Nothing in the statutory text requires us to attribute that counterintuitive intention to Congress. While the statute references OET-69, that bulletin contains no specification about which Census data to use. Petitioners point to a separate regulation, 47 C.F.R. § 73.616(e)(1), in which the Commission as of 2008 prescribed use of 2000 Census data— the most recent Census then available—for post-DTVtransition station applications. That regulation, however, has no necessary bearing on the incentive auction and repacking processes subsequently called for by the Spectrum Act, which had yet to be enacted at the time of the regulation’s promulgation. Petitioners’ argument asserts not only that Congress inexplicably foreclosed the use of up-to-date Census figures to assess a broadcaster’s population served, but also that Congress, for some reason, precluded the development of improved software tailored to implement OET-69 for purposes of the Spectrum Act. Again, nothing in the statute or in OET-69 itself compels that conclusion. OET-69 states only that “[a] computer is needed to make” the Longley-Rice radio propagation model’s “predictions,” OET-69, at 1 (J.A. 492), suggesting that, while a computer is necessary to implement the methodology, no particular software program inheres in the methodology. And although OET-69 explains that there is a “computer program now used by the [FCC] Media Bureau” to evaluate applications for new and modified broadcast stations, id. at 8 n.1 (J.A. 499), it contemplates that others “desiring to implement the Longley-Rice model” may use “their own computer program,” id. at 5 (J.A. 496). 14 Additionally, as the Commission explained in the Order, “[t]he Commission’s bureaus have used different software programs to implement OET-69” for different purposes. Order, ¶ 146. “Each type of software provides a different utility that serves the purposes for which it is used (i.e., licensing, interference and international coordination).” Id. Especially in that light, there is no reason to conclude that, merely by referencing “the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69,” Congress sought to foreclose the Commission’s development of software designed to best implement the incentive auction and repacking process newly called for by the Spectrum Act. At the very least, the statute does not unambiguously compel that surprising reading. We are unpersuaded by petitioners’ identification of two prior instances in which the Commission arguably used the word “methodology” to refer both to OET-69’s general approach and to particular data inputs. Petitioners point to no instance in which Congress applied the term in that fashion. Nor can petitioners identify anything that supports their reading in OET-69 itself—the document contains no definition of the word “methodology.” Further, the two prior instances of Commission usage arose in contexts unrelated to the Spectrum Act. Those instances identified by petitioners thus fall well short of establishing that Congress unequivocally barred the Commission from using improved software and updated data inputs when applying OET-69 under that Act. In addition, the two instances noted by petitioners are not models of clarity. The first concerns the Commission’s adjustments in 2008 to the rules governing the then-ongoing DTV transition. See Third Periodic Review of the Commission’s Rules and Policies Affecting the Conversion to Digital Television, 73 Fed. Reg. 5634 (Jan. 30, 2008). There, 15 the Commission stated that it was “revis[ing] the OET 69 interference analysis methodology to make the results more accurate,” including by using 2000 Census data in evaluating station applications. Id. at 5668; see 47 C.F.R. § 73.616(e)(1). Although the Commission observed that it was revising “the OET 69 interference analysis methodology,” it may have been using shorthand to describe a revision to its particular application of the methodology in connection with the DTV transition. And notably, whereas the Commission sought to make its application of OET-69 “more accurate” by using the most current Census data, petitioners’ reading of the Spectrum Act would have the opposite effect here, precluding the use of up-to-date Census data. The second instance identified by petitioners concerns an FCC ruling (also related to the DTV transition) referring to “the default vertical antenna patterns inherent in the OET-69 methodology.” In the Matter of Qualcomm Inc. Petition for Declaratory Ruling, 21 FCC Rcd. 11,683, ¶ 14 (2006). That oblique statement again may be a shorthand reference to the Commission’s application of OET-69’s methodology in that context. But even if otherwise, it fails to establish a broader understanding under which any reference to that methodology necessarily incorporates the particular computer software and data inputs in use at any particular time. For those reasons, we reject petitioners’ contention at Chevron step one that the statute unambiguously forecloses the Commission’s use of the improved TVStudy program along with updated data inputs when applying OET-69 to determine a broadcaster’s coverage area and population served. 3. Proceeding to Chevron step two, we ask whether the Commission offered a “reasonable explanation of how [its] interpretation serves the statute’s objectives.” Northpoint 16 Tech., 412 F.3d at 151 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Commission’s Order readily met that standard. The Commission persuasively explained why the TVStudy software is both more user-friendly and better adapted to handle the kinds of computations the Commission will need to conduct in the reverse auction and repacking process called for by the Spectrum Act. See Order, ¶¶ 13032. The repacking, the Commission observed, “presents a complex engineering problem that must be solved repeatedly during the course of the reverse auction bidding process: namely, how to determine which channels to assign to stations that will stay on the air, consistent with statutory requirements, as well as . . . technical requirements.” Id. ¶ 6. That requires a computer program capable of “undertak[ing], in a timely fashion, the volume of interference calculations necessary to ensure that all stations that will remain on the air following the auction are assigned channels in accordance with the provisions of the Spectrum Act.” Id. ¶ 130; see id. ¶ 19. The Commission’s engineering experts tell us that TVStudy is up to the task: for instance, unlike the Commission’s prior software, TVStudy can “create and use a uniform nationwide grid for analysis of coverage area and population served” and “undertake pairwise interference analyses of every station that will remain on the air after the incentive auction and generate data that identify combinations of stations that can (or cannot) co-exist on the same channel or adjacent channels.” Id. ¶¶ 130, 132 (internal footnote omitted). And it can perform that analysis much more quickly than the prior software could. Id. ¶ 132. The Commission also explained that its use of updated and more precise data inputs advanced its statutory mandate to use “all reasonable efforts” to preserve each station’s coverage area and population served as of February 22, 2012. 17 Id. ¶ 130. It is self-evident that the accuracy of the Commission’s determinations would be improved by its use of more recent population data, more precise terrain calculations, and more exact technical information. Indeed, the terrain database mentioned in the 2004 version of OET-69 has become “obsolete” and is no longer distributed or maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. Id. ¶ 150. Moreover, while petitioners believe that the Commission paid insufficient attention to the interests of broadcasters accustomed to the old program, the Commission explained that its engineers had taken care in designing and developing TVStudy “to ensure that it faithfully implements the OET-69 methodology, provides results that closely match those of the earlier computer software (notwithstanding updates that improve accuracy), and avoids bias that would systematically reduce broadcast stations’ coverage areas and populations served.” Id. ¶ 140. The Spectrum Act aims to enhance the technological capacity of the United States by requiring the Commission to conduct an incentive auction that is “the first such auction ever attempted worldwide.” NPRM, ¶ 4. The Commission understandably declined to fulfill that forward-looking mandate by using obsolete software and inaccurate data. Petitioners’ insistence that the Commission do so runs counter to the statute’s basic objectives. We thus reject petitioners’ argument that the Commission’s decision to use TVStudy and updated inputs amounts to an unreasonable interpretation of the Spectrum Act at Chevron step two. Our analysis also suffices to dispense of petitioners’ arbitrary-and-capricious arguments to the same effect. See Gen. Instrument, 213 F.3d at 732. 18