Commission grants Crown Castle request for higher EIRP

The FCC adopted a Memorandum Opinion and Order on Feb. 23 authorizing a Crown Castle-owned subsidiary to transmit with a power limit of 4kW/MHz and 8kW/MHz peak EIRP for fixed and base station operations in non-rural and rural areas, respectively.

In August 2005, Crown Castle asked the commission to grant a waiver to rules that specify a 2kW EIRP limit for fixed and base station operations in the 1670MHz-1675MHz band. The FCC MO&O addresses that request.

In granting the request, the commission limited the authority to 30 cellular market areas in Crown Castle's initial market deployment plan and parts of two other CMAs covering the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. The order placed some restrictions on use of the higher powered stations near National Weather Service radiosonde receive sites and astronomy facilities operating in the 1660.5MHz-1670MHz band.

For more information, visit: www.fcc.gov.