Opinion ID: 186634
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Regulation of Commercial Paging Signal Licensing

Text: 2 Paging services allow both commercial subscribers and internal (or private 1 ) networks of users to receive messages broadcast by radio waves over dedicated frequencies. Historically, the FCC allocated frequencies for paging operations under two parts of its rules. Part 22 covered the traditional common carrier paging services available to the public known as Public Mobile Services (Part 22 systems), see 47 C.F.R. § 22.99, while Part 90 covered the private paging carrier services known as Private Land Mobile Radio Services (Part 90 systems), including point-to-point private radio services tailored to the needs of particular user groups for internal use — and not subject to common carrier regulation — such as safety operations (e.g., roadside assistance and volunteer fire departments), systems used by school bus drivers or for disaster relief and businesses requiring specialized internal paging services like private ambulance companies. See 47 C.F.R. §§ 90.15, 90.20. With a growing demand for private service, however, the Commission began authorizing licensees to provide private carrier service, i.e., service to third-party users on a for-profit basis, under Part 90. 2 See Inquiry Relative to the Future Use of the Frequency Band 806-960 MHz, Second Report and Order, 46 F.C.C.2d 752, 755 ¶¶ 6-10, 1974 WL 29789 (1974); Implementations of Sections 3(n) and 332 of the Communications Act, Second Report and Order, 9 F.C.C.R. 1411, 1414 ¶ 4, 1994 WL 76285 (1994). As private carrier service was offered to third parties for profit, and as the FCC permitted private land mobile service operators to interconnect with the public telephone network and thereby provide the same service traditionally offered by common carriers only, private carriers became indistinguishable from common carriers. Nevertheless the two remained subject to separate regulatory schemes. See H.R.Rep. No. 103-111, at 259-60 (1993). Common carriers were subject to rate regulation on both state and federal levels, for example, while private carriers were not. Id. at 260. 3 In August 1993, the Congress enacted the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA). Pub.L. No. 103-66, 107 Stat. 312 (1993). Seeking to establish a single regulatory framework for all for-profit mobile radio licensees offering services to the public and a different framework for private licensees, OBRA amended section 332 of the Communications Act of 1934. OBRA section 6002(b) modified the regulation of all mobile radio services, including paging services, by creating two statutorily defined categories of mobile services: commercial mobile radio services (CMRS) and private mobile radio services (PMRS). It defined CMRS as any mobile service . . . that is provided for profit and makes interconnected service available (A) to the public or (B) to such classes of eligible users as to be effectively available to a substantial portion of the public. See 47 U.S.C. § 332(d)(1). In response to this congressional mandate, the FCC concluded that all existing common carrier mobile radio services operating under Part 22 of its rules, including common carrier paging services, and a number of the then-private radio services operating under Part 90 of its rules, including private carrier paging services provided by AAPC members, would now be subject to the new CMRS classification. 3 Implementations of Sections 3(n) and 332 of the Communications Act, Second Report and Order, 9 F.C.C.R. at 1452-53 ¶ 97, 1994 WL 76285. Through OBRA the Congress also sought to ensure that Part 90 licensees receive substantially similar regulatory treatment as the Part 22 licensees with which they now share the CMRS classification by providing that the Commission, in the regulations that will, after such date of enactment, apply to a service that was a private land mobile service and that becomes a commercial mobile service (as a consequence of such amendments), shall make such other modifications or terminations as may be necessary and practical to assure that licensees in such service are subjected to technical requirements that are comparable to the technical requirements that apply to licensees that are providers of substantially similar common carrier services. OBRA § 6002(d)(3)(B).