§  101.1331   Treatment of incumbents.

   (a) Any MAS station licensed by the Commission prior to July 1, 1999 in
   the 928.0-928.85 MHz/952.0-952.85 MHz/956.25-956.45 MHz and
   928.85-929.0 MHz/959.85-960.0 MHz bands, as well as assignments or
   transfers of such stations approved by the Commission and consummated
   as of January 19, 2000, shall be considered incumbent.

   (b) Incumbent operators in the 928.0-928.85 MHz/952.0-952.85
   MHz/956.25-956.45 MHz bands are grandfathered as of January 19, 2000,
   and may continue to operate and expand their systems pursuant to the
   interference protection and co-channel spacing criteria contained in
   § 101.105.

   (1) MAS operators are prohibited from acquiring additional frequencies
   in the 928.0-928.85 MHz/952.0-952.85 MHz/956.25-956.45 MHz bands and
   the 932.25625-932.49375 MHz/941.25625-941.49375 MHz bands for the
   purpose of expanding private carrier service and from changing the use
   of their frequencies in any manner that is inconsistent with this part.
   Refer to § 101.147 for designated uses.

   (2) Incumbent operators in the 928.0-928.85 MHz/952.0-952.85
   MHz/956.25-956.45 MHz bands will include incumbents as defined in
   § 101.1331(a), as well as, their transferees and/or assignees and the
   successors of the transferees and/or assignees and retain their
   grandfathered status, provided that the use of the MAS frequencies
   remains unchanged from that of the transferor and/or assignor of the
   license.

   (c) Incumbent operators in the 928.85-929.0/959.85-960.0 MHz bands are
   grandfathered as of January 19, 2000, and may expand their systems
   provided that the signal level of the additional transmitter(s) does
   not increase the composite contour that occurs at a 40.2 kilometer
   (25-mile) radius from the center of each master station transmitter
   site. Incumbent operators and geographic area licensees may negotiate
   alternative criteria.

   (d) The frequencies associated with incumbent authorizations in the
   928/959 MHz bands that have cancelled automatically or otherwise been
   recovered by the Commission will automatically revert to the applicable
   EA licensee.

   (e) The frequencies associated with incumbent authorizations in the
   928/952/956 MHz bands that have cancelled automatically will revert to
   the Commission.

   [ 65 FR 17450 , Apr. 3, 2000, as amended at  66 FR 35111 , July 3, 2001]