|
Prepared by Todd D. Gray and Steven C. Schaffer for NIA Panel
on Excess Capacity Leasing - February 20, 2002
NIA-2002 Conference Presentation
1. Minimum ITFS usage: 20 hours per channel per week (applies to both
analog and digital systems)
2. Types of transmissions qualifying as "ITFS use": The FCC
is flexible in allowing ITFS licensees to determine what qualifies, so long as:
"such transmissions are in furtherance of the educational mission of an
accredited public or private school, college or university, or other eligible
institution, offering courses to enrolled students. Such uses may include downstream
or upstream video, data and voice transmissions. In addition, while not heretofore
qualifying to satisfy educational usage requirements, qualifying uses now may
include, but are not limited to, teacher conferencing, remote test administration,
distribution of reports and assignments, research towards and sharing works in
progress for courses, professional training, continuing education and other similar
uses"
3. Recapture/Reservation of ITFS Transmission Time: 20 hours per channel
per week recapture requirement (with no economic or operational detriment) for
analog systems; reservation requirement of 5 % of capacity of channels for digital
systems
4. Channel Loading and Shifting and Swapping Allowed: Channel Loading
is putting all required ITFS use for a four-channel group onto one channel in
the same group licensed to the same educator; Channel Shifting is putting
all required ITFS use for a four-channel group onto other channels in the same
system, but which are licensed to a different educator; Channel Swapping
is exchanging specific individual ITFS channels to accommodate specific needs
for a single licensee’s channels to be used in different ways
5. Lease Term: Lease term cannot exceed 15 years
6. Responsibility for Station Construction and Operation/Content: ITFS
licensee held responsible for compliance with FCC rules regarding station construction
(including complying with construction deadlines) and operation; where an licensee
is not the source of transmissions over its licensed bandwidth, it is not regarded
as having legal control over the content of the transmission; however, licensee
must retain sole control over content and amount of its educational (ITFS) usage
7. Modifications of ITFS facilities: Only the ITFS licensee can file FCC
applications for modifications to its station’s facilities
8. Right to Acquire ITFS Equipment at End of Lease: ITFS licensee must
retain some right to acquire the actual ITFS transmission equipment used by the
ITFS licensee for educational purposes, or comparable equipment, in the event
the lease agreement is terminated; this requirement applies to both dedicated
and common (shared) equipment
9. Non-Compete Clause: Non-compete clauses cannot be unreasonable (FCC
has struck down a provision denying ITFS licensee the right to allow anyone else
to use excess capacity for 3 years after the contract term)
10. Downstream Transmission Capacity: If channels are to be used for two-way,
ITFS licensees must retain 25% of its capacity for downstream or "point to
multipoint" transmissions
|
