47 U.S.C. § 342 — Process for issuing qualified carrier certifi-

Page 212 TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS § 342 1 See References in Text note below. (A) any television broadcast stations that are located in the State in which the county is located and that any cable operator or sat- ellite carrier was retransmitting to sub- scribers in the county on January 1, 2004; or (B) up to 2 television broadcast stations lo- cated in the State in which the county is lo- cated, if the number of television broadcast stations that the cable operator or satellite carrier is authorized to carry under paragraph (1) is less than 3. (2) DEEMED SIGNIFICANTLY VIEWED.—A station described in subsection (a) is deemed to be sig- nificantly viewed in the eligible county within the meaning of section 76.54 of the Commission’s regulations (47 CFR 76.54). (3) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE COUNTY.—For pur- poses of this section, the term ‘‘eligible county’’ means any 1 of 4 counties that— (A) are all in a single State; (B) on January 1, 2004, were each in des- ignated market areas in which the majority of counties were located in another State or States; and (C) as a group had a combined total of 41,340 television households according to the U.S. Television Household Estimates by Nielsen Media Research for 2003–2004. (4) LIMITATION.—Carriage of a station under this section shall be at the option of the cable operator or satellite carrier. (b) CERTAIN MARKETS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a satellite carrier may not carry the signal of a television station into an adjacent local market that is comprised of only a portion of a county, other than to unserved households located in that county. (June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 341, as added Pub. L. 108–447, div. J, title IX [title II, § 211], Dec. 8, 2004, 118 Stat. 3430.) § 342. Process for issuing qualified carrier certifi- cation (a) Certification The Commission shall issue a certification for the purposes of section 119(g)(3)(A)(iii) 1 of title 17 if the Commission determines that— (1) a satellite carrier is providing local serv- ice pursuant to the statutory license under section 122 of such title in each designated market area; and (2) with respect to each designated market area in which such satellite carrier was not providing such local service as of the date of enactment of the Satellite Television Exten- sion and Localism Act of 2010— (A) the satellite carrier’s satellite beams are designed, and predicted by the satellite manufacturer’s pre-launch test data, to pro- vide a good quality satellite signal to at least 90 percent of the households in each such designated market area based on the most recent census data released by the United States Census Bureau; and (B) there is no material evidence that there has been a satellite or sub-system fail- ure subsequent to the satellite’s launch that precludes the ability of the satellite carrier to satisfy the requirements of subparagraph (A). (b) Information required Any entity seeking the certification provided for in subsection (a) shall submit to the Com- mission the following information: (1) An affidavit stating that, to the best of the affiant’s knowledge, the satellite carrier provides local service in all designated market areas pursuant to the statutory license pro- vided for in section 122 of title 17 and listing those designated market areas in which local service was provided as of the date of enact- ment of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010. (2) For each designated market area not list- ed in paragraph (1): (A) Identification of each such designated market area and the location of its local re- ceive facility. (B) Data showing the number of house- holds, and maps showing the geographic dis- tribution thereof, in each such designated market area based on the most recent census data released by the United States Census Bureau. (C) Maps, with superimposed effective isotropically radiated power predictions ob- tained in the satellite manufacturer’s pre- launch tests, showing that the contours of the carrier’s satellite beams as designed and the geographic area that the carrier’s sat- ellite beams are designed to cover are pre- dicted to provide a good quality satellite sig- nal to at least 90 percent of the households in such designated market area based on the most recent census data released by the United States Census Bureau. (D) For any satellite relied upon for cer- tification under this section, an affidavit stating that, to the best of the affiant’s knowledge, there have been no satellite or sub-system failures subsequent to the sat- ellite’s launch that would degrade the design performance to such a degree that a satellite transponder used to provide local service to any such designated market area is pre- cluded from delivering a good quality sat- ellite signal to at least 90 percent of the households in such designated market area based on the most recent census data re- leased by the United States Census Bureau. (E) Any additional engineering, designated market area, or other information the Com- mission considers necessary to determine whether the Commission shall grant a cer- tification under this section. (c) Certification issuance (1) Public comment The Commission shall provide 30 days for public comment on a request for certification under this section. (2) Deadline for decision The Commission shall grant or deny a re- quest for certification within 90 days after the date on which such request is filed. (d) Subsequent affirmation An entity granted qualified carrier status pur- suant to section 119(g) 1 of title 17 shall file an Page 213 TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS § 344 affidavit with the Commission 30 months after such status was granted stating that, to the best of the affiant’s knowledge, it is in compliance with the requirements for a qualified carrier. (e) Definitions For the purposes of this section: (1) Designated market area The term ‘‘designated market area’’ has the meaning given such term in section 122(j)(2)(C) of title 17. (2) Good quality satellite signal (A) In general The term ‘‘good quality satellite signal’’ means— (i) a satellite signal whose power level as designed shall achieve reception and de- modulation of the signal at an availability level of at least 99.7 percent using— (I) models of satellite antennas nor- mally used by the satellite carrier’s sub- scribers; and (II) the same calculation methodology used by the satellite carrier to deter- mine predicted signal availability in the top 100 designated market areas; and (ii) taking into account whether a signal is in standard definition format or high definition format, compression method- ology, modulation, error correction, power level, and utilization of advances in tech- nology that do not circumvent the intent of this section to provide for non-discrimi- natory treatment with respect to any com- parable television broadcast station sig- nal, a video signal transmitted by a sat- ellite carrier such that— (I) the satellite carrier treats all tele- vision broadcast stations’ signals the same with respect to statistical multiplexer prioritization; and (II) the number of video signals in the relevant satellite transponder is not more than the then current greatest number of video signals carried on any equivalent transponder serving the top 100 designated market areas. (B) Determination For the purposes of subparagraph (A), the top 100 designated market areas shall be as determined by Nielsen Media Research and published in the Nielsen Station Index Di- rectory and Nielsen Station Index United States Television Household Estimates or any successor publication as of the date of a satellite carrier’s application for certifi- cation under this section. (June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 342, as added Pub. L. 111–175, title II, § 206, May 27, 2010, 124 Stat. 1250.) Editorial Notes REFERENCES IN TEXT Section 119(g) of title 17, referred to in subsecs. (a) and (d), was redesignated section 119(f) of title 17 by Pub. L. 116–94, div. P, title XI, § 1102(a)(6), Dec. 20, 2019, 133 Stat. 3203. The date of enactment of the Satellite Television Ex- tension and Localism Act of 2010, referred to in subsecs. (a)(2) and (b)(1), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 111–175, which shall be deemed to refer to Feb. 27, 2010, see section 307(a) of Pub. L. 111–175, set out as an Effec- tive Date of 2010 Amendment note under section 111 of Title 17, Copyrights. Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective Feb. 27, 2010, see section 307(a) of Pub. L. 111–175, set out as an Effective Date of 2010 Amendment note under section 111 of Title 17, Copy- rights. § 343. Conditions on commercial terrestrial oper- ations (a) In general The Commission shall not permit commercial terrestrial operations in the 1525–1559 megahertz band or the 1626.5–1660.5 megahertz band until the date that is 90 days after the Commission re- solves concerns of widespread harmful inter- ference by such operations in such band to cov- ered GPS devices. (b) Notice to Congress (1) In general At the conclusion of the decision regarding whether to permit such operations in such band, the Commission shall submit to the con- gressional committees described in paragraph (2) official copies of the documents containing the final decision of the Commission. If the de- cision is to permit such operations in such band, such documents shall contain or be ac- companied by an explanation of how the con- cerns described in subsection (a) have been re- solved. (2) Congressional committees described The congressional committees described in this paragraph are the following: (A) The Committee on Energy and Com- merce and the Committee on Armed Serv- ices of the House of Representatives. (B) The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate. (c) Covered GPS device defined In this section, the term ‘‘covered GPS de- vice’’ means a Global Positioning System device of the Department of Defense. (June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 343, as added Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title XVI, § 1698(a), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2641.) § 344. Repealed. Pub. L. 117–58, div. F, title VI, § 60602(b), Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1249 Section, act June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 344, as added and amended Pub. L. 117–58, div. F, title VI, § 60602, Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1246, established a tele- communications interagency working group to develop recommendations to address the workforce needs of the telecommunications industry and required a report containing its recommendations to be submitted to Congress no later than 1 year after the date on which the working group was established. Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE OF REPEAL Pub. L. 117–58, div. F, title VI, § 60602(b), Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1249, provided that: ‘‘Section 344 of the Com-