PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 1919 M St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Released: May 27, 1998 DA 98-1006 Electronic Election Procedures for the Broadband Personal Communications Service (PCS) C Block Installment Payment Plans This Public Notice contains specific directions regarding the electronic filing of Election Notices through the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Licensing System (ULS) as discussed in the Implementations Procedures and Frequently Asked Questions Public Notice. A more detailed description of the electronic filing process is included in the appendices. Please carefully read this Public Notice and the appendices prior to electronically filing your Election Notice. C block licensees may electronically file their Election Notices with the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) starting at 8:00 a.m. on June 2, 1998 and ending at 5:30 p.m. on June 8, 1998. Elections may be filed 24 hours per day during this time period. The ULS Technical Support Hotline, (202) 414-1250, is available from now through June 8, 1998, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. All calls to the Technical Support Hotline are recorded. In addition, the electronic filing system will be available to C block licensees on May 28, 1998 and May 29, 1998 for licensees to familiarize themselves with the electronic filing process. During this time period, a licensee may practice electronically filing its election through the ULS. All information filed during this practice period will be deleted from the ULS on May 30, 1998. Election Notices can be filed electronically in three steps. First, a licensee must register in the ULS. Second, a licensee must download and complete the Election Excel Spreadsheet from the ULS home page. Third, in order to complete its electronic filing, a licensee must log-on to the ULS and file its attachments, including the Election Excel Spreadsheet, as appropriate to its election. Licensee registration in the ULS is described in Appendix A. Steps two and three are described below as well as in Appendices B and C. Election Excel Spreadsheet To electronically file an Election Notice, a licensee must download and complete the Election Excel Spreadsheet from the ULS home page at http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls. In general, a licensee need only list its license(s) by entering license's MTA, BTA, and Call Sign, as well as the election for each license. The elections are listed at the top of the Election Excel Spreadsheet. Additional directions to complete the spreadsheet are included in Appendix B. The Election Excel Spreadsheet must be downloaded and completed prior to filing an Election Notice in the ULS. ULS Electronic Election Notice To file its ULS Electronic Election Notice, a licensee must log-on the ULS system and proceed to the C block Election Filing screen. Detailed log-on instructions are included in Appendix C. All of the attachments, except the Election Excel Spreadsheet, should be created and saved in the licensees word processing system before electronically filing an Election Notice. ULS can accept documents created in any standard word processing package as an attachment to an Election Notice. For further questions about creating an attachment, please contact the ULS Technical Support Hotline. Depending on its elections, a licensee may be required to submit up to six different attachments. The attachments are as follows: 1. Election Excel Spreadsheet 2. Affiliate Description 3. New Money Instructions 4. Wiring Instructions 5. Disaggregation/Resumption Payment Application 6. Amnesty Payment Application . The Election Excel Spreadsheet must be submitted in all instances except when a licensee is electronically filing solely to acknowledge that another affiliate is filing on its behalf. In all other instances the Election Excel Spreadsheet must be submitted. The following information must be provided in the six attachments. 1. Election Excel Spreadsheet. As described above, this spreadsheet is downloaded from the ULS homepage. Once completed by the licensee, the Election Excel Spreadsheet will include the election option selected for each license on a license-by-license basis. 2. Affiliate Description. (Applies only to licensees filing as affiliates.) If affiliated licensees wish to be treated as a single licensee for purposes of making an election, they must choose a chief affiliate that will be responsible for making the elections for all of the affiliated licensees. The chief affiliate must specify in this attachment the names of the affiliated licensees that wish to be considered as a single licensee. The Election Excel Spreadsheet must reflect the elections for all of the chief affiliates' licenses as well as for its affiliate's licenses. In addition, all affiliated licensees must file the Affiliate Description attachment, which will be considered their Election Notice. The attachment must list each affiliated license that they hold, specifying the MTA, BTA and Call Sign or license number for which the chief affiliate is making an election, and stating that the chief affiliate is making the election for the affiliated licensee. 3. New Money Information. Any licensee electing Prepayment or Disaggregation with Prepayment and wishing to add "new money" to prepay a license(s), must provide the following information in this attachment: (1) amount of "new money" being remitted, (2) date of remittance, and (3) method of remittance (i.e., cashier's check or wire transfer). 4. Wiring Instructions. A licensee that is due a refund of all or part of its installment payments must submit certain information so that the Commission may process the refund. This attachment must include the Payee Name; Licensee Name; Licensee Tax Identification Number; FCC Account Number; Bank Name; Name of Bank Account (if different); ABA Routing Transit Number; Bank Account Number; Bank Account Type (savings or checking); Bank Contact and Telephone Number; Bank Address; and Signature, Name and Phone Number of Requestor. This attachment will be kept confidential and not be made available to the public. Refunds will be processed via Electronic Funds Transfer (i.e. wire transfer). 5. Disaggregation/Resumption Payment Application. A licensee electing Disaggregation must specify in this attachment whether its credit of 40 percent of the down payment on the returned spectrum will be applied to reduce the Suspension Interest or to principal owed for the retained spectrum that has been disaggregated. 6. Amnesty Payment Application. If a licensee has made installment payments and is electing amnesty for some licenses and resumption of payments or disaggregation with resumption of payments for other licenses, the installment payments on the surrendered spectrum will be applied to the Suspension Interest for the licenses remaining in the installment payment program. A licensee in this situation must specify in this attachment to which licenses it would like the installment payments applied and how much should be allocated to each such license. A licensee may elect to apply the installment payments evenly across all licenses, in which case the Commission will apply the same percentage decrease to all licenses remaining in the installment payment program and held by the licensee. Confirmation. After uploading all the appropriate attachments, the licensee must click on the "Submit" button. The ULS will provide a confirmation message with a file number that should be recorded and used for future reference. Electronically filed Election Notices are not officially submitted until the system provides you with a confirmation message containing the file number assigned to the election. Failure to File an Election. Any licensee that fails to file a timely Election Notice shall be treated as having elected to continue making payments under its existing Note obligations and will be required to pay, by July 31, 1998, all unpaid interest accruing from the date of license grant through July 31, 1998. Thus, a licensee failing to file a timely Election Notice will not be eligible to repay the Suspension Interest in a series of eight equal payments. For further information, please contact Rachel Kazan or Rita Cookmeyer, Auctions and Industry Analysis Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, at (202) 418-0660. ULS Technical Support Hotline (202) 414-1250 Open 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. APPENDIX A INSTRUCTIONS FOR LICENSEE REGISTRATION IN THE ULS Before electronically filing a C Block Election Notice, you must register your Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and Call Signs with the Commission's Universal Licensing System (ULS). If you have previously registered your TIN and Call Signs with the ULS, proceed to Appendix B, Instructions for Electronically Filing a C Block Election Notice. Register a TIN and its associated Call Signs, using the following steps. Conventions The instructions in this attachment use the following typographical conventions: bold Represents objects on the screen that you click with the mouse pointer, including buttons, Internet links, icons, tabs, menu items (e.g., Cancel button, Auctions link, Save option in the File menu). italic Represents field names or areas of a screen (e.g., Licensee Name field, Applicant Information area of a screen). bold italic Represents characters that you must type exactly as they appear in the instructions. For example, if you are instructed to type http://www.fcc.gov, you should type all of the characters shown in bold italic exactly as they are printed. Small Caps Represents keys on the keyboard (e.g., Enter, Ctrl, Esc). Registering TIN and Call Signs 1. Using your Internet service provider, connect to the Internet and start your web browser. 2. In the Location field (Netscape 3.x), Netsite field (Netscape 4.x), or Address field (Internet Explorer) of the web browser screen, type http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls. Then press the Enter key. This will access the Universal Licensing System home page. 3. Click the ULS Call Sign Registration button. 4. On the ULS TIN/Call Sign Registration screen, click Register Now to select it, then click the Continue button. 5. On the next screen, identify whether you are registering as a business entity (e.g., corporation, partnership, government entity, etc.) or an individual. Click the desired option to select it, then click the Continue button to access the registration form. 6. Complete the registration form. Click the Help button at anytime for additional information on completing the online registration form. 7. Specify the password and personal or corporate identifier that you will use in conjunction with your TIN. In the New Password field, enter a password of at least 5 characters. Basic guidelines for selecting your self-assigned password: Specify a password that you will be able to remember easily. For security purposes, avoid selecting an obvious password that someone else could easily guess, such as spouse's name, child's name, etc. Your password must be at least 5 characters but no more than 30 characters. You may use letters, numbers, or symbols in your password. Memorize your password. Note that your password is case sensitive. For example, if you specify "station" (lowercase) as your password, you must always enter "station" in lowercase during ULS login. "Station" or "STATION" will not be accepted. 8. Re-enter your password in the Verify Password field. This entry must be an exact replication of the password entered in the New Password field. 9. In the Personal Identifier or Corporate Identifier field, enter a word (of your choice) to serve as your personal identifier (if individual) or corporate identifier (if business entity). Note: For security purposes, you will be required to correctly enter your TIN and password prior to accessing the ULS for filing C block elections or updating your registration information. If you forget your password, contact FCC Technical Support. The FCC support staff will ask for your personal or corporate identifier to verify your identity before resetting your password. 10. When you have completed the registration form, click the Submit button. If you have entered any incomplete or erroneous information, an Errors Screen lists the errors. Click Return, make your corrections, then click Submit again. Note that your registration cannot be submitted until all errors have been corrected. 11. A screen appears requesting you to identify the Call Signs (if any) to be associated with your TIN. You must identify to the ULS the Call Signs that are to be associated with your TIN. 12. Follow the instructions on the screen to select a call sign entry method. Use the Upload Call Signs option only if you have more than 100 Call Signs. Click the Help button for additional call sign entry instructions. 13. After entering your Call Signs, click the Submit button. 14. When your registration has been successfully submitted, a confirmation message screen appears. This screen shows the TIN, password, and personal or corporate identifier that you just registered. Important: Your registration has not been successfully submitted to the ULS unless the confirmation screen appears. 15. From the confirmation screen, you can click the Home button to return to the ULS home page or the Registration Menu button if you wish to return to the ULS Call Sign Registration menu. Technical Support For technical assistance in electronically registering your TIN with the FCC, contact the FCC Technical Support Hotline at (202)414-1250. The FCC Technical Support Hotline generally will be available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. beginning on May 20, 1998. All calls to the FCC Technical Support Hotline are recorded. APPENDIX B PROCEDURES FOR COMPLETING THE ELECTION EXCEL SPREADSHEET The Election Excel Spreadsheet may be found by accessing the ULS page at http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls. You may download and save the Election Excel Spreadsheet to your computer in order to make your elections on the spreadsheet. Once you have completed the spreadsheet, save it with your elections and follow the procedures for attaching it to the electronic Election Notice at the ULS site. Instructions: Complete sections A through F on the spreadsheet. Section A: Enter the full name of the licensee. Section B: Enter the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) of the licensee. Sections C, D and E: List the MTA number, BTA number and Call Sign for each of your licenses in a separate row. Example: (C) (D) (E) M003 B002 KNLF200 M006 B014 KNLF202 Note: You may use the excel list of C block licenses on the ULS home page to copy the MTA, BTA and Call Sign for each of your licenses. Section F: Enter the number of the election that corresponds to the election option you are making for each license listed. The following numbers and corresponding election option may be used to make an election. 1 = Resumption of Payments (Elect to resume payments on the 30 MHz license.) 2 = Amnesty - Bid (Elect to surrender the license, bid on the license in the reauction and receive no credit for the down payment.) 3 = Amnesty - Prepayment Credit (Elect to surrender the license, not bid on the license in the reauction and receive a 70 percent credit of its down payment towards the Prepayment Credit.) 4 = Disaggregation - Prepay (Elect to disaggregate 15 MHz of spectrum on a license and prepay the principal amount on the retained spectrum.) 5 = Disaggregation - Resume (Elect to disaggregate 15 MHz of spectrum on a license and resume payments on the principal amount on the retained spectrum.) 6 = Prepayment - 30 MHz (Elect to prepay a 30 MHz license.) 7 = Not Afford (Prepayment) (Elect to return the license rather than prepay the principal under the affordability exception.) 8 = Amnesty All (Elect amnesty for all licenses.) Upon completing the above information, save your file and follow the procedures for electronic filing of the Election Notice. APPENDIX C INSTRUCTIONS FOR ELECTRONICALLY FILING A C BLOCK ELECTION NOTICE Election Notices may be electronically filed using the following steps. Note: Prior to electronically filing an Election Notice, a licensee must first register its TIN and Call Signs in the ULS. 1. Using your Internet service provider, connect to the Internet and start your web browser. 2. In the Location field (Netscape 3.x), Netsite field (Netscape 4.x), or Address field (Internet Explorer) of the web browser screen, type http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls. Then press the Enter key. This will access the Universal Licensing System home page. 3. Click the C Block Election Filing button. 4. On the login screen, type your Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) in the field provided. This field requires the TIN of the applicant. Do not type the TIN of the Real Party in Interest (if one exists). 5. In the Password field, type the password you selected during TIN registration. This field is case sensitive; be sure to type the password exactly as you specified it when you registered with the FCC. For example, if you registered with the password PASSWD, do not type passwd. 6. Click the Continue button. If you entered an incorrect TIN and/or password, an error message appears. You must then type the correct information and click Continue again. 7. A screen appears asking you to upload attachments. Upload your C Block election attachment file(s) according to the guidelines below: a. In the Attachment Type field, select the type of attachment from the drop-down menu. b. In the File Name field, type the path for your attachment file or use the Browse button to select it. The ULS can accept files in a variety of formats, which are listed in the system's Help facility. To obtain a list of file formats, scroll to the end of the form and click the ? (Help) button. When the Online Filing Help screen appears, click the File Formats link. The Attachment File Formats screen describes the available file formats. c. In the File Description field, type a description for the attachment file. The file description should match the name of one of the six attachments as listed in the Public Notice. d. Click the Upload button. e. Repeat the above steps for each attachment file you wish to upload. 8. When you have finished uploading attachments, click the Continue button. 9. A screen appears asking you to provide contact information. If there is a question about the C Block electronic filing, an FCC representative will communicate with the representative indicated in the Contact Information section. Enter the contact information and click the Submit button. 10. A Confirmation screen appears indicating the file number of your C Block election application. This file number uniquely identifies your application. Please record your application's file number for future reference. Note: Applications filed electronically are not officially submitted until the system provides you with a confirmation message containing the file number assigned to your application. 11. To print a copy of the Confirmation screen containing the file number of your C Block election application, select the Print command from your web browser. This command can be found in the File menu of commonly used web browsers. If your web browser has a toolbar, you can also print the page by clicking on the Print button. 12. From the confirmation screen, you can click the Home button to return to the ULS home page. Technical Support For technical assistance in registering or electronically filing a C block Election Notice, contact the FCC Technical Support Hotline at (202) 414-1250. The FCC Technical Support Hotline generally is available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. All calls to the FCC Technical Support Hotline are recorded.