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$//Order,Viking Dispatch Inc.,DA 95-1417//$
$/1.1202 Sunshine period prohibition/$
                                Before the
             FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION     DA 95-1417
                          Washington, D.C. 20554
                 


In the Matter of                 )
                                 )
Request of Viking Dispatch       )
Services, Inc. for Waiver        )
of Ex Parte Rules.               )


                                   ORDER


Adopted: June 22, 1995             Released: June 23, 1995  


     By the Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau


     1.  On June 2, 1995, Viking Dispatch Services, Inc. (VDS)
filed a request for a limited waiver of the ex parte rules in
connection with a current proceeding which involves its rule
waiver requests and associated applications.  In December, 1994,
and March, 1995, VDS filed the applications and waiver requests
in order to provide dispatch communications to entities subject
to Part 90 of the Commission Rules governing the Private Land
Mobile Radio Services, 47 C.F.R. Part 90.  See Public Notice,
released April 14, 1995, DA 95-826.

     2.  Ten parties filed formal oppositions to the waiver
requests of VDS thereby making consideration of the waiver
requests a restricted proceeding to which the Commission's       
ex parte rules apply.  See 47 C.F.R.  1.1202 and 1.1208.
VDS states that the ex parte rules should be waived for the
limited purpose of providing an opportunity for VDS and staff
members of the Commission to discuss the terms and conditions
under which the VDS licenses would be granted.  A timely
opposition to the VDS request has been filed by UTC, The
Telecommunications Association (UTC). 
  
     3.  VDS notes that the Commission's Rules provide for an
exemption from the ex parte rules.  See  1.1204(b)(7).  VDS
states that such exemption has been granted where settlement
negotiations were involved.  According to VDS, those proceedings
were not designated for hearing and the meetings were initiated
by the Commission in order to resolve the issues in those
restricted proceedings.  By analogy, VDS believes that those
cases illustrate the need to apply the ex parte rules in a
flexible manner to encourage the resolution of contested issues.
 
     4.  VDS further states that, without a grant of the
requested waiver, it would be constrained to conduct those
discussions in the presence of the ten (10) entities that oppose
the Part 90 rule waiver requests.  In its view, VDS believes that
such a discussion, were it to take place, would be cumbersome,
likely unproductive, and would delay the construction of the VDS
system proposed.

     5.  In its opposition to the subject request for waiver, UTC
states that private discussions with the Commission's staff are
the kinds of behind-the-door conversations that the ex parte
rules prohibit during restricted proceedings.  UTC believes that
the public interest dictates that all of the interested parties
should be provided with an opportunity to be present, if such
discussions are held with the Comission's staff.  UTC urges the
Commission to reject the waiver requested by VDS because the
authorizations that VDS would discuss are the core issue in the
proceeding and the question of licensing the proposed VDS system
is what gave rise initially to the ex parte nature of this
proceeding.

     6.  We agree with UTC.  The meetings with the Commission's
staff that VDS seeks to initiate are, in VDS's words, for the
purpose of discussing "the terms and conditions under which the
VDS licenses will be granted ... [and] will expedite the
authorization of VDS's system ... ."  To allow VDS to have
meetings to discuss the substance of its waiver request or
variations thereof, which meetings are not requested by
Commission personnel and which would take place without all
parties present, would be unfair to the other participants in
this proceeding.  For these reasons, we will deny the request for
waiver of the ex parte rules.

     7.  In view of the foregoing, VDS's request for waiver of
the ex parte rules IS HEREBY DENIED.

                     FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION



                     Regina M. Keeney                             
                     Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau