Paging Audit

The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) has concluded its audit of all site-specific licenses authorized under Part 22, Paging and Radiotelephone Service (Subpart E) with "CD" radio service code and site-specific licenses under Part 90, Paging Operations (Subpart P) on exclusive channels with "GS" radio service code.

A Public Notice, DA 05-491, has been released identifying the licenses that have been deemed to have permanently discontinued service as defined in 47 C.F.R. Section 22.317 and have, therefore, cancelled automatically. The Universal Licensing System has been updated to reflect these licenses as terminated. Licensees that believe their license was terminated in error have thirty (30) days from the publication of Public Notice DA 05-491 in the Federal Register to file a Petition for Reconsideration with the Commission.

The audit was initiated to determine if stations were operational pursuant to Section 22.317 that states that any station that has not provided service to subscribers for 90 continuous days is considered to have been permanently discontinued, unless the applicant notified the FCC otherwise, prior to the end of the 90-day period and provided a date on which operations will resume, which date must not be in excess of 30 additional days.

• Scope
• Process
• How to Respond
• Audit Progress and Results
• Overall Audit Results

The licenses included in this audit were authorized authorized with a "CD" or "GS" radio service code:

• Part 22, Paging and Radiotelephone Service, and includes all licenses with a CD radio service code
• Part 90, Paging Operations, and includes all licenses with a "GS" radio service code that are licensed for one or more of the 35 exclusive channels

This audit did not include:

• Geographic licenses granted as a result of a Commission auction.
• Licenses authorized on the five shared channels under Section 90.494 - 929.0375 MHz, 929.0625 MHz, 929.0875 MHz, 929.1625 MHz, and 929.2625 MHz.

During the week of September 24, 2004, WTB mailed audit letters to all licensees in the "CD" radio service and to all licensees operating on exclusive channels in the "GS" radio service. Licensees were required to respond by November 12, 2004. On December 7, 2004, a second audit letter and notice of cancellation was mailed to all licensees that did not respond to the first inquiry. Responses to the second audit letter were due by January 21, 2005. Due to an error, a few licensees did not receive this letter and another letter was mailed on January 13, 2005 and the deadline to respond to the audit was extended to February 21, 2005. Responses had to be filed electronically and the options were limited to "operational" or "cancel."

For a call sign, licensees were directed to respond by confirming that all stations under a call sign were either:

1. operational, i.e. they had not permanently discontinued service pursuant to section 22.317 or,
2. cancel, i.e., they had permanently discontinued service pursuant to section 22.317 and the license had cancelled automatically.

To respond for a specific location or discrete frequency, the response options were the same as for a call sign; "operational" or "cancel."

Licensees were required to respond, electronically, by a specific deadline. To submit a response, a licensee was required to enter its FCC Registration Number (FRN), password, and audit reference number. Licensees without an FRN had the capability to register with the FCC Commission Registration System (CORES) when they entered Audit Filing.

An audit database tracked the progress and results of the audit. The final results are summarized on the License Audit web pages. Specific audit responses are recorded in Universal Licensing System under a license's "Admin" tab.

Licenses Recovered As a Result of the Paging Audit (pdf)

This report, current as of June 15, 2005, contains a list of the licenses that expired, canceled or terminated during the audit process. It also contains eleven authorizations that have been returned to active status as a result of timely filed Petitions for Reconsideration. The status "expired" indicates the license expired during the audit. The status "canceled" indicates that during the audit, the licensee certified their license had permanently discontinued service or filed an application to cancel the license. Licenses for which a response to the audit was not received, the status of "terminated" indicates the license was presumed to have permanently discontinued service and, therefore, canceled automatically.
pdf, xls