The rules in this section govern the processing of applications for central office stations that request a rural radiotelephone channel pair when the applicant has applied for or been granted an authorization for other rural radiotelephone channel pairs in the same area. The general policy of the FCC is to promote effective use of the spectrum by encouraging the use of spectrum-efficient technologies (i.e. BETRS) and by assigning the minimum number of channels necessary to provide service.

(a) Transmitters in same area. Any central office station transmitter on any channel pair listed in §22.725 is considered to be in the same area as another central office station transmitter on any other channel pair listed in §22.725 if the transmitting antennas are located within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of each other.

(b) Initial channel pairs. The FCC does not assign more than two channel pairs for new central office stations, unless there are more than eight rural subscriber stations to be served. Stations are considered to be new if there are no authorized transmitters on any channel listed in §22.725 controlled by the applicant in the same geographic area.

(c) Additional channel pairs. Applications for central office station transmitters to be located in the same area as an authorized central office station controlled by the applicant, but to operate on a different channel pair(s) are considered as requests for additional channel pair(s) for the authorized central office station. The FCC may grant applications for additional channel pairs provided that the need for each additional channel pair (after the first two) is established and fully justified in terms of achieving the required grade of service (blocking probability), and the applicant demonstrates that there will still be adequate spectrum available in the area to meet realistic estimates of current and future demand for paging, two-way mobile and rural radiotelephone services. In the case of conventional rural radiotelephone central office stations, an explanation must be provided as to why BETRS technology is not being used instead of additional channel pairs.