OTTAWA – The CRTC will cease issuing multipoint distribution system (MDS) licenses as of September 1, 2011 and will now require companies to apply for standard broadcast distribution licenses. The Commission ruled that existing licenses for those undertakings will simply lapse on that date.
The Department of Industry had converted various broadcasting certificates issued to MDS undertakings to Broadband Radio Service (BRS) licenses. Any BRS licensee that requires a CRTC license because it chooses to offer broadcasting services, but does not meet all criteria set out in the Commission’s exemption order for broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), will be need to apply for a standard BDU license.
A BRS licensee that requires a BDU license will be subject to all standard requirements, including those for carriage of services, set out in the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations.
The Commission says it will make “one short-term exception to this policy for Câblevision TRP-SDM inc.” However, should Câblevision TRP-SDM inc. decide to continue offering broadcasting services beyond August 31, 2013, it will be required to operate under the new licensing regime.
Multipoint Distribution Systems (like the former Look TV, Craig Wireless, and certain others, most of which have abandoned or stopped building out their digital wireless TV services) are wireless terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) that provide signals and services to subscribers using MDS technology. MDS technology has channel capacity constraints in that an MDS service can distribute a maximum of 15 analog signals or, depending on the data compression method employed, between 75 and 120 standard definition digital signals. It relies on line-of-sight access between the MDS transmitter and the receiving antenna.
As part of the Department of Industry’s (the Department’s) spectrum auction of the 2596 to 2686 MHz frequency band, which is utilized by current MDS licensees, the department converted various broadcasting certificates issued to these MDS undertakings to Broadband Radio Service (BRS) licenses. A BRS license issued by the department allows an undertaking to provide fixed, mobile, and/or broadcasting services. BRS licenses are linked to assigned territories referred to as Tiers. All BRS licenses are assigned “Tier 3s” with the exception of those located in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut, which are assigned “Tier 4s.”
As part of its process, the department reduced the assigned spectrum for MDS licensees by one third. As a result, an MDS licensee with capacity to distribute 15 analog signals will have its analog signal capacity reduced from 15 to 10 channels.
Going forward a BRS licensee, as licensed by the department, that chooses to offer broadcasting services must either meet all criteria in the commission’s Exemption Order for terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings serving fewer than 20,000 subscribers set out in Broadcasting Order 2009-544 (the BDU Exemption Order), including any subsequent amendment to this Order, or obtain a license from the commission.
