The Federal Communications Commission has alerted broadcasters to a disruption of its Universal Licensing System (ULS). Various services have been unavailable since Friday, June 9.

Affected systems include the commission’s Tower Construction Notification System (TCNS), E-106 System and Antenna Structure Registration System (ASR). The FCC says this disruption is due to technical issues. During this time, no applications may be filed through the database.

As of June 13, there is no timeline for recovery, although the commission says it anticipates resolving these problems “in the near term.”

During this disruption, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau have provided initial guidance regarding affected filing deadlines and review periods, as well as resources available for emergency authorization requests.

All regulatory filings that needed to be or will need to be made in these systems starting June 9 will be extended until the FCC announces normal ULS operations, for at least three business days after access to the systems resumes.

For more information, read the full public notice.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Radio World. 

WASHINGTON—In his effort to continue the modernization and streamlining of the FCC’s process, the Commission’s Chairman Ajit Pai has developed a new pair of proposals.

The first proposal would continue the FCC’s efforts to move to electronic filing and correspondence in an effort to reduce its use of paper by fully transitioning the Universal Licensing System to an electronic format. Pai’s second proposal is meant to expedite hearing processes by expanding the use of written hearings.

“By transitioning more records and communications from paper to electronic format, we can save money and increase our efficiency,” said Pai. “And by streamlining our hearing rules, we can resolve disputes more quickly, which will benefit the private sector as well as the Commission. I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting these good-government initiatives.”

No time table was given for these proposals to be accepted.

WASHINGTON--The Federal Communications Commission has shaken up the calendar when it comes to new deadlines for filing certain broadcast documentation.

After parts of the U.S. government, including the FCC for the most part, went into shutdown mode in late December, the agency gave broadcasters until the dayafter the government reopened to submit filings that were due anytime from Jan. 3 through Jan. 29, 2019. Then that deadline was changed to Wednesday Jan 30, 2019.

Now, however, the commission issued a new public notice alerting broadcasters of revised deadlines for specific documents.

These new deadlines shake things up a bit. In a newly released public notice, the commission extended the deadlines for most filings according to the following schedule:

• Filings that were due between Jan. 3 and Jan. 7 were due Jan. 30, 2019;

• Filings that would otherwise be required to be filed between Jan. 8 and Feb. 7 will be due for filing on Feb. 8, 2019.

There are some exceptions. The FCC set different filing deadlines for certain proceedings, including the Universal Licensing System database, the Information Consumer Complaint database, comments to the Carriage Election Notice Modernization proceeding and the Online Public Inspection File (OPIF).