47 U.S.C. § 337 — Allocation and assignment of new public safety services licenses and commercial licenses

(a) By January 1, 1998, the FCC had to divide the radio spectrum between 746 and 806 megahertz into two pieces: (1) 34 megahertz set aside for public safety services, under rules the Commission set after talking with the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General; and (2) 26 megahertz set aside for commercial use, to be sold off through competitive bidding under section 309(j). (b) The Commission had to start handing out the public safety licenses created under (a) no later than September 30, 1998. (c) An entity that wants to provide public safety services can apply to use frequencies that haven't been assigned to anyone yet. The Commission must waive any of its rules that get in the way (except its rules against harmful interference) so that use can happen. The Commission must approve the application if: no other public-safety spectrum is available for the need; the proposed use won't cause harmful interference to protected users; it fits with other public-safety spectrum uses already in that area; the frequency has sat unassigned for at least 2 years; and approving it serves the public interest. This waiver process applies to any application filed on or after August 5, 1997, whether it's still pending or brand new. (d) When writing the rules for licenses under this section, the Commission must: set interference limits at the edges of each spectrum block and service area; add any technical rules needed to protect regular analog and digital TV signals during the changeover to digital TV; and may let licensees combine multiple licenses into bigger spectrum blocks, or split a license into smaller pieces. The Commission must also make sure that public-safety licensees using the newly reallocated spectrum from (a)(1) don't suffer harmful interference from TV broadcasters. (e) A full-power TV station licensed to broadcast between 698 and 806 megahertz (channels 52 through 69) could not keep operating at that frequency after June 12, 2009. For low-power TV stations that qualified under the definition in (f)(2), the Commission had to try to give each one a new frequency below 698 megahertz, consistent with its digital-TV channel plan, so the station could keep broadcasting. (f) Definitions: "Public safety services" means services whose main purpose is protecting people's safety, health, or property; that are provided either by a state or local government, or by a nongovernmental group authorized by a government agency whose main job is providing such services; and that aren't sold to the general public. A "qualifying low-power television station" is one that, during the 90 days before August 5, 1997, broadcast at least 18 hours a day, aired an average of at least 3 hours a week of programs made in its own local market, and followed the rules that apply to low-power TV stations.