FCC proposes $640,000 fine tied to PTP backhaul sites
The Federal Communications Commission is prepared to fine AT&T $640,000 for operating point-to-point microwave sites in unauthorized spectrum bands.
The claim states that over the past five years, AT&T and its subsidiaries had been operating PTP sites across the country and in Puerto Rico that were using spectrum bands the carrier was not authorized to use. PTP microwave is typically used to backhaul traffic at cell sites that are not linked through wired backhaul facilities.
Many of the sites came through recent acquisitions, including AT&T’s purchase of Centennial Communications and the purchase of wireless assets from Verizon Communications following required divestitures from its purchase of Alltel. The Centennial deal, which was announced in 2008, included assets covering portions of the Midwest and Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Alltel asset acquisition in question was completed in mid-2010.
The FCC report noted that AT&T acknowledged it operated sites at spectrum bands outside of what it was licensed to use. During its investigation, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau examined the licensing history of approximately 250 AT&T sites and found AT&T was illegally using spectrum at 26 of those sites and
failed to notify the FCC regarding minor modifications of an additional eight stations within the past year.
“Our society’s dependence upon wireless communications necessitates that the companies entrusted with authority to transmit those communications operate within licensed parameters,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “A licensee’s failure to ensure that its facilities operate as authorized threatens the integrity of our network and greatly increases the risk of harmful interference, especially when, as in this case, numerous unauthorized operations continued for years without resolution.”
The FCC added that due to its size and financial health, AT&T should have had the resources necessary to handle correcting the issue or at least filing the necessary paperwork with the agency in order to move forward with repairs.
“Accordingly, we find that AT&T apparently willfully and repeatedly operated 59 of its common carrier fixed point-to-point microwave stations at variance from their authorized parameters in violation of Section 301 of the Act and Sections 1.903(a) and 1.947(a) of the Rules,” the agency noted.
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