Effective Date Set for Fine-Tuned Experimental Licensing Rules; Comment Deadlines Announced for Further Proposed Changes

A month or two ago we reported on some fine-tuning of the FCC's experimental licensing rules. This arose in the context of the Commission's consideration of several petitions for reconsideration of its 2013 overhaul of the experimental rules. The recent order effecting that fine-tuning has now made it into the Federal Register, which means that the various tweaks will become effective as of September 30, 2015.

In that same order the FCC also proposed some additional changes. In particular, it proposed to open certain previously-restricted bands to program licensees under the same restrictions that now apply to medical testing licensees. In a separate item in the Federal Register, the deadlines for comments about that proposal have been announced: comments are due by September 30, 2015 and reply comments by October 15. As always, comments and replies may be filed through the FCC's ECFS online filing system; refer to Proceeding Nos. 10-236 and 06-155.