27.1233—Reimbursement costs of transitioning.

(a) Replacement downconverters. The proponent(s) must install at every eligible EBS receive site a downconverter designed to minimize the reception of signals from outside the MBS.

(1) An EBS receive site is eligible to be replaced if:

(i) A reception system was installed at that site on or before the date the EBS licensee receives its Pre-Transition Data Request (see § 27.1231(d) );

(ii) The reception system was installed by or at the direction of the EBS licensee;

(iii) The reception system receives EBS programming under § 27.1203(b) and (c) or is located at a cable television system headend and the cable system relays educational or instructional programming for an EBS licensee; and

(iv) It is within the licensee's 35-mile radius GSA.

(2) Replacement downconverters must meet the following minimum technical requirements:

(i) The downconverter's input frequency range (the “in-band frequencies”) must be 2572 MHz to 2614 MHz and output frequency range must be 294 MHz to 336 MHz;

(ii) The downconversion process must not invert frequencies;

(iii) The nominal gain of the downconverter must be 32 dB, or greater;

(iv) The downconverter must include filtering prior to the first amplifier that attenuates frequencies below 2500 MHz and above 2705 MHz by at least 25 dB;

(v) The downconverter must have an out-of-band input 3rd order intercept point (input IP3) of at least 9 dBm, where out-of-band is defined as all frequencies below 2566 MHz and all frequencies above 2620 MHz;

(vi) The downconverter must have a typical noise figure of no greater than 3.5 dB and a worst case noise figure of no greater than 4.5 dB across all in-band frequencies and across its entire intended operating temperature range;

(vii) The downconverter must not introduce a delta group delay of more than 20 nanoseconds for digital operations or 100 nanoseconds for analog operations over any individual six megahertz MBS channel.

(b) Migration of Video Programming and Data Transmission Track. (1) The proponent(s) must provide, at its cost, to each EBS licensee that intends to continue downstream high-power, high-site educational video programming or data transmission services, with one programming track on the MBS channels for each EBS video or data transmission track the licensee is transmitting on a simultaneous basis before the transition.

(i) To be eligible for migration, a program track must contain EBS programming that complies with § 27.1203 (b) and (c).

(ii) The proponent(s) must pay only the costs of migrating programming tracks being transmitted on December 31, 2002 or within six months prior thereto.

(2) The proponent(s) must migrate each eligible programming track to spectrum in the MBS that will be licensed to the affected licensee at the conclusion of the transition.

(3) After the transition, the desired-to-undesired signal level ratio at each of the receive sites securing a replacement downconverter must satisfy the following criteria:

(i) Cochannel D/U Ratio. (A) When the post-transition desired signal is transmitted using analog modulation, the actual cochannel D/U ratio measured at the output of the reception antenna must be at least the lesser of 45 dB or the actual pre-transmission D/U ratio less 1.5 dB.

(B) When the post-transition desired signal will be transmitted using digital modulation, the actual cochannel D/U ratio measured at the output of the reception antenna must be at least the lesser of 32 dB or the pre-transition D/U ratio less 1.5 dB.

(C) Where in implementing the Transition Plan, the proponent(s) deploys precise frequency offset in an analog system, the minimum cochannel D/U ratio is reduced to 38 dB, provided that the transmitters have or are upgraded pursuant to the Transition Plan to have the appropriate “plus,” “zero,” or “minus” 10,010 Hertz precision frequency offset with a ±3 Hertz (or better) stability.

(ii) Adjacent Channel D/U Ratio. The actual adjacent channel D/U must equal or exceed the lesser of 0 dB or the actual pre-transmission D/U ratio. However, in the event that the receive site uses receivers or is upgraded by the proponent(s) as part of the Transition Plan to use receivers that can tolerate negative adjacent channel D/U ratios, the actual adjacent channel D/U ratio at such receive site must equal or exceed -10 dB. Provided that the receive site receiver is not upgraded and cannot tolerate -10 dB, the adjacent channel D/U ratio would be 0dB.

[69 FR 72034, Dec. 10, 2004, as amended at 71 FR 35193, June 19, 2006]

CFR

27.1233—Reimbursement costs of transitioning.