(a) Eligibility. The following parties are eligible to participate through a Qualifying Transaction under the rural-focused transaction prong of the ECIP: an assignor that is a covered geographic licensee as defined by § 1.907; a lessor in an included service as set forth in § 1.9005 that is also a covered geographic licensee as defined by § 1.907; and an unaffiliated assignee or lessee that commits to meeting the requirements of the rural-focused transaction prong, except that a transaction shall not be eligible for participation in the ECIP under this prong if it includes either:

(1) A license(s) with existing shared construction obligations pursuant to § 1.950(g);

(2) An application to participate in ECIP that includes an election from the parties to share construction obligations pursuant to § 1.950(g);

(3) A light-touch leasing spectrum manager lease arrangement(s) of 3.5 GHz Priority Access Licenses in the Citizens Band Radio Service; or

(4) An application to participate in ECIP that includes a barred party pursuant to § 1.60007.

(b) Qualification requirements. An applicant in a Qualifying Transaction under the rural-focused transaction prong must demonstrate that:

(1) The ECIP transaction involving a disaggregation, partition/disaggregation in combination, or a lease, includes a minimum of 50% of the licensed spectrum, and meets the minimum spectrum threshold at every point in the Transaction Geography (where the percentage is calculated at any point as the amount of spectrum being assigned/leased (in megahertz)/total spectrum held under the license (in megahertz));

(2) The minimum Qualifying Geography threshold of exclusively rural area is included in the application based on the following scaled categories:

(i) 300 contiguous square miles for contributing licenses with licensed area containing up to 30,000 square miles;

(ii) 900 contiguous square miles for contributing licenses with licensed area containing between 30,001-90,000 square miles;

(iii) 5,000 contiguous square miles for contributing licenses with licensed area containing between 90,001-500,000 square miles; or

(iv) 15,000 contiguous square miles for contributing licenses with licensed area containing 500,001 square miles or more;

(3) If a lease arrangement, the minimum term of a long-term spectrum manager lease or de facto transfer lease is at least five (5) years; and

(4) The ECIP transaction was entered into in good faith with a bona fide intent by all parties to meet the program's obligations.

(c) Multiple contributing licenses. Qualifying Transactions between unaffiliated parties under the rural-focused transaction prong must specify at least one area of Qualifying Geography, and one or more licenses may contribute, via any combination of full assignment, partitioning and/or disaggregation, and/or lease(s), provided the Qualifying Geography intersects each contributing license included in the underlying application. Where multiple licenses with different size licensed areas are included in the Qualifying Transaction and each contributes to the Qualifying Geography, the Qualifying Geography must consist of the minimum geographic threshold applicable to the contributing license with the greatest square mileage in its licensed area.

[87 FR 57417, Sept. 20, 2022]