NEWSReport No. MM-859                     MASS MEDIA ACTIONNovember 10, 1994

            RETURN OF 4,391 MULTIPOINT DISTRIBUTION SERVICE 
                           APPLICATIONS UPHELD

     The Commission has upheld staff actions returning 4,295 applications for new
multipoint distribution service (MDS) stations at 62 transmitter sites as unacceptable for
filing.  By a separate action, the Commission also upheld the return of 96 applications for
new MDS stations at 10 transmitter sites.  

     This action reduces by approximately 60 percent the backlog of MDS legal
challenges, which includes reconsideration petitions, petitions to deny and requests for
waivers of Commission rules. The Commission anticipates that the entire backlog will be
eliminated by spring, a priority of its initiative to reinvent government. 

     The term MDS refers both to single channel and to multichannel stations used in the 
Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS).  MDS stations on the E and F channel groups are
sometimes referred to as Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) stations.

     Each of the 4,391 applications was returned as unacceptable for filing for one or more
of the following reasons: (1) the application was filed past the relevant cut-off date; (2) the
applicant failed to submit required interference analyses for authorized instructional television
fixed service (ITFS) stations and for previously proposed or authorized MDS stations, and to
serve those applicants and stations, as required by law; and/or (3) the application was filed
within the geographic area of another MDS applicant or authorized station.  Some of the
applications contained a request for a waiver of certain rules but failed to present sufficient
justification to warrant an exemption from Commission requirements.  

     In seeking reconsideration, the petitioners argued that their applications were
acceptable for filing or contained all necessary elements for a grant of a waiver.  They
further argued they were given insufficient notice of the reasons for the return of their
applications and that the staff misinterpreted the Commission's rules and policies and adopted
new rules ex post facto.

 (over)
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     The Commission said the petitioners had not made a persuasive showing that
warrented reinstatement of their applications.  It noted that 2,325 petitions for
reconsideration were filed late, and the petitioners offered no legitimate excuse for their
untimeliness.  Moreover, the Commission pointed out that each returned application was, as
filed, mutually exclusive with and cut-off by either an existing MDS station or a previously
filed application, or was otherwise unacceptable for filing.

     The 4,295 MDS  applications for authority to construct on the E or F channels at 62
sites were filed with the Commission between January 9, 1991 and April 8, 1992.  The 96
applications to construct on the E or F group channels at ten transmitter sites were filed
between June 6, 1991 and January 2, 1992.  In both cases, the applications were filed after
the Commission had reopened the filing period for MDS applications on the E or F channels,
subject to certain location restrictions.  After the last of these applications was filed, the
Commission imposed a freeze on the filing of MDS applications for new stations.

     Because the petitions for reconsideration raised recurring, common issues, the
Commission determined it would be most efficient to consider them together. 

     Action by the Commission November 10, 1994, by Memorandum Opinion and Orders
on Reconsideration (FCC 94-290, 291).  Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Barrett,
Ness and Chong.

                                  - FCC -

     News Media contacts: Audrey Spivack or Rosemary Kimball at (202) 418-0500.
     Mass Media Bureau contacts: Joyce Bernstein at (202) 739-0787 and Lynne Milne
at (202) 416-0883.