New "Accepted for Filing" Status
To prepare for the upcoming filing windows, REC has added the "Accepted for Filing" status and public notice monitoring into eLMS.
Unlike CDBS, the LMS raw data and public view does not support the "Accepted for Filing" application status. Under the new system, the "Accepted for Filing" status comes only from the Applications Public Notice issued daily by the FCC and that status is never placed into the raw data (as it was with CDBS).
Before this change, applications filed in LMS will appear in eLMS and related REC systems as "Pending" (PEN). With this change, they will appear as "Accpeted For Filing" (ACC). FCC.today will still show the PENDING status.
With this enhancement package, new functionality has been put into the REC DataStore that will, on a daily basis, parse the plain text version current release of the Applications Public Notice in order to determine the file numbers that an Accepted for Filing status will be placed on. This data will be tracked in eLMS in the application and applist_(fm/am/tv) tables along with the FCC document number that the public notice is on.
Our system depends on the FCC making the plain text version of the Applications Public Notice in a format that can be understood by our parser. Our system may miss applications if there is a malformed Public Notice document coming from the FCC.
Please note that some REC applications that still use legacy tables may continue to display "Pending" until we make changes to those applications to support eLMS.
What does "Accepted for Filing" mean?
For applications such as renewals, modifications and post-construction license applications, this means that the application has been received at the FCC and is going to be processed.
For applications for new stations and major changes during filing windows and auctions, this means that the application is ready to be granted (or part of a mutual exclusive application situation). When an application is Accepted for Filing, a 30 day window opens from the date of the Public Notice (15 days for FM Translators), where a Petition to Deny can be filed against the application.
Older applications
We have retroactively gone back to June 1, 2019 to update our records based on LMS generated public notices available. Some records were not able to be recovered because the FCC text file was malformed.
Known issues
Because the Public Notice uses the file number and not the application ID, some amendments will show the previous application's accepted for filing date. It is very likely that those dates will be overwritten when the Staff reviews the amendment and accepts that for filing. We do note that this will also change the accepted for filing date on the previous versions of that file number. This is a known issue that we will attempt to address.
We currently have three different formats of public notices that we can parse for. If the FCC diverts from one of those three methods when releasing the document, there is a possibility that we will not pick it up. We will watch for that and institute any code changes if necessary. REC will make a best effort to assure that Accepted for Filing data is as complete as possible on LMS records filed after June 1, 2019.
The following Public Notices were not parsed due to malformed documents from the FCC: 6/26/2019, 8/20/2019, 8/21/2019, 8/22/2019, 8/23/2019, 11/15/2019, 12/16/2019, 1/30/2020, 4/16/2020, 5/20/2020, 5/27/2020, 6/3/2020, 6/5/2020, 6/8/2020, 6/17/2020, 3/16/2021, 3/17/2021. We will schedule a project to recover those public notices as well as any prior to 6/1/2019.
FCCdata.org
The "Accepted For Filing" (ACC) status code has been added to the code table and will appear similar to the former CDBS functionality.
On applications that are or were Accepted for Filing, engineering records will show the date the application was accepted for filing. The date will be a link to the PDF FCC Public Notice for which the application's acceptance appeared on.
Renewal Status
Renewal Status has been modified from legacy to eLMS. This will support the "Accepted For Filing" status. If this status is present, the application will show the date the application was accepted for filing as well as the date that the application appeared on the Applications Public Notice along with a link to that PDF document. We note that because of the known issue with occasional malformed documents from the FCC, our system may not always display when an application is accepted for filing. For renewals, an assumption can be made that the application will be accepted for filing.
Consummation Notice bug fix
A bug in the eLMS Application Parser created about 500 records for Consummation Notices (used to finalize the transaction on an assignment of license) where a status of "Acc" was placed into eLMS and therefore, not displaying correctly in the REC systems. We have created a new application status code of "ACP" for "Accepted" (as opposed to "Accepted for Filing"), repaired all of the records involved and modified the Application Parser to properly place the "ACP" application status on Consummation Notice applications.
