(a) A nationwide licensee must construct a sufficient number of base stations (i.e., base stations for land mobile and/or paging operations) to provide coverage to a composite area of at least 750,000 square kilometers or 37.5 percent of the United States population within five years of the issuance of its initial license and a composite area of at least 1,500,000 square kilometers or 75 percent of the United States population within ten years of the issuance of its initial license. Licensees may, in the alternative, provide substantial service to their licensed areas at the appropriate five- and ten-year benchmarks.
(b) Licensees must notify the Commission in accordance with Sec. 1.946 of this chapter of compliance with the Construction requirements of paragraph (a) of this section.
(c) Failure by a nationwide licensee to meet the construction requirements of paragraph (a) of this section, as applicable, will result in automatic cancellation of its entire nationwide license. In such instances, nationwide licenses will not be converted to individual, site-by-site authorizations for already constructed stations.
(d) Nationwide licensees will not be required to construct and place in operation, or commence service on, all of their authorized channels at all of their base stations or fixed stations. [69 FR 75173, Dec. 15, 2004]