FAQ: Spectrum Licence Site Data Upload

Following the Decision on Amendments to Requirements for Spectrum Licensees to Submit Technical Information about Sites (canada.ca), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is introducing new requirements for the Spectrum Licensing Site Data Upload process. As of October 31, 2024, the Department now requires 54 fields of data.

The Text Format for Spectrum Licence Site Data Upload provides a list of all fields, how to enter correct data and possible reasons for errors in the validation process.

The uploaded file must be .CSV and contain one row of technical data per station in operation under the authority of a spectrum licence.

A single upload file may contain this technical data for multiple licences across multiple billing accounts.

E.g., A station with three transmit antennas has the information about the station repeated on each line to indicate that the antennas are in the same station. For each antenna, identify all transmit and received channels in a specific azimuth that are potentially in operation.

You cannot upload a file in this format. Data must be uploaded in .CSV format with the exact sequence specified by ISED.

Visit How to Upload Spectrum Licence Site Data.

When an upload is completed using the new version of the Spectrum Licence Site Data upload, the system will send an automatic e-mail to the e-mail address of the account which has uploaded the file the day following the upload. This message will indicate the processing status of the submission and whether any errors were found.

File upload validation and processing are asynchronous jobs. Only one file can be validated at a time by the system, however, you can upload additional files prior to the completion of the validation process for any of your files.

When a new file is added to the master list of uploaded files, the status will show as “Validation Pending”.

The system will process your file in the order it was received, based on uploads by all users. Therefore, you may need to wait while the system is processing uploads made by other users.

When the system starts processing a file, the status will be changed to “Validation in Progress”.

When the processing of a file is complete, the status will change to indicate the result:

• “Processed” indicates that the file was processed successfully.
• “Errors Found” indicates that the file contained one or more errors and was not processed at all.

Any error in a file is a fatal error. The entire file is either processed successfully or not processed owing to errors.

If your file is found to have errors, please review your upload summary report and error messages. You will need to correct the errors and resubmit the data to avoid compliance measures.

Your upload summary report and error report can be found on the List of Spectrum Licence Site Data Uploads page by logging in to your Web Profile.

Yes. If a file was uploaded using the new version of the Spectrum Licence Site Data upload, the system will send an automated e-mail message to the e-mail address of the contact person who uploaded the files.

This message will be sent when the file status changes to either “Processed” or “Errors Found”.

If you receive a message that your file’s status is “Errors Found”, review your Error Report. (You will need to correct the errors and resubmit the data to avoid compliance measures.)

A link to the Error Report will be provided in the e-mail or can be found on the List of Spectrum Licence Site Data Uploads page by logging in to your Web Profile.

Yes, if you have uploaded your file using the new version of the Spectrum Licence Site Data upload.

A new List of Spectrum Licence Site Data Uploads page has been added and can be accessed from within your Web Profile. This page will list all files previously submitted by the logged in user.

No. Once a file has been successfully validated it cannot be viewed through the system. You will need to refer to your copy.

However, you can view a bulk report of all your uploaded data using the Spectrum Licensed Site Data Browser.

Yes, but only when the status is listed as “Validation Pending” and only by the user who added the file.

Once a file moves to “Validation in Progress” it can no longer be deleted. Also, a file that has been processed cannot be deleted. It will be listed in the List of Spectrum Licence Site Data Uploads for your account.

If you notice errors in a file you uploaded, you can correct the errors by modifying your original file and re-uploading it.

If the file was successfully uploaded:

1. Download the Upload Summary Report that summarizes what was included in the data upload (number of licences, number of records, etc.).
2. Download and review the View Stations Report to see data that was successfully uploaded to the system.
3. Navigate to the Spectrum Licensed Site Data Browser to review data in the ISED stations database.

If the file was rejected:

1. Download the Error Report that summarizes what errors were found when processing the file.
2. Review the error messages and ensure to fix all errors of the same type in the file, return to the List of Spectrum Licence Site Data Uploads page and upload the corrected file.

There are four reports available to you following the processing of your Spectrum Licence Site Data upload:

1. Upload Summary Report
2. Error Report
3. View Stations Report
4. Spectrum License Site Data Status Report

The Upload Summary Report summarizes the content of any file processed successfully. This report also serves as an official receipt for the licensee and ISED that data was provided and that licence conditions have been met.

The Data Errors Report summarizes the issues found while parsing and validating the content of any file processed. As a downloadable report, it allows you to correct your file while working offline. Once the data has been corrected, you are required to resubmit the file as a new upload.

The View Stations Report is available following the successful upload of a Spectrum Licence Site Data file. It contains data that was successfully uploaded to the system.

The Spectrum License Site Data Status Report lists all of the spectrum licences for a given account number and shows the authorization number, number of records on file, and the last upload date. This report was formerly called the List of Submitted Licences.

A file is often rejected due to 4 common errors, explained below.

1. The Licence number does not contain a leading 0.

   If you receive errors of:

   • Licence is expired.
   • Not within service area
   • Not within an authorized frequency band

   Check your licence number and determine whether it is correct and contains a 0 as the first digit.

2. The value entered in any of the Antenna Beam or Azimuth fields is not between 1.0 – 359.9.

   • Tx Antenna Horizontal Beam (Column AQ)
   • Rx Antenna Horizontal Beam (Column AR)
   • Tx Antenna Vertical Beam (Column AS)
   • Rx Antenna Vertical Beam (Column AT)
   • Tx Antenna Azimuth (Column AU)
   • Rx Antenna Azimuth (Column AV)

   The entry needs to be between 1.0 – 359.9. Check that your entry is within those parameters.

3. The value entered in any of the following columns is not in ALL CAPS.

   • Station Type (Column G)
   • Radio Technology (Column H)
   • Province/Territory Code (Column K)
   • Site Type Code (Column N)
   • Site Structure Type Code (Column P)
   • Tx or Rx Antenna Type Code (Column AE, AF)
   • Tx or Rx Antenna Directional Pattern Indicator (Columns AO, AP)

4. The date has not been entered in YYYY-MM-DD format in column Q, Date of Last Modification.

The Spectrum Licensed Site Data Browser allows you to query the technical data submitted for your spectrum license, searching by any of the following fields:

• Authorization Number
• Account Number
• Company Name
• Subservice
• Licence Category
• Type of Station
• Centre of Search Area: Latitude
• Centre of Search Area: Longitude
• Search Radius [km]
• Frequency [MHz]
• Search Range Bandwidth (MHz)

There will be 2 clickable links in each row of the search results.

1. Authorization number will give you detailed information on the licence and licence holder.
2. Station Location will give you detailed technical information on the station.

Per the Decision on Amendments to Requirements for Spectrum Licensees to Submit Technical Information about Sites (canada.ca) spectrum licensees need to provide a Spectrum Licence Site Data upload every month as a condition of licence.

If no stations have been deployed under the authority of your spectrum licence when this monthly report is due, a .CSV file will still need to be uploaded in order to fulfill this condition. This also holds true if you are in the process of decommissioning and no longer have stations in operation.

In either of these cases, using the new version of the Spectrum Licence Site Data upload allows licensees to use a new special action – “NOSTATIONS” to indicate that you have no operational stations. To do so, complete the spreadsheet up to column E and place the indicator “NOSTATIONS” in column F, Station Location, of your file and upload it.

Uploading a file with “NOSTATIONS” in the Station Location column will fulfill your licence condition to provide the monthly upload of data.

Note: It is imperative that there be no data in the spreadsheet beyond Column F for any row or the file will be rejected by the system.

As a condition of the licence, all licensees are required to provide monthly Spectrum Licence Site Data uploads, even if there have been no changes to the technical data for the reporting period.

Note: This special action cannot be used for your first upload following the implementation of the new data requirements on October 31, 2024. ISED will not transfer legacy entries or data from one system to the other and therefore a full set of data will need to be uploaded to the new system.

Using the new version of the Spectrum Licence Site Data upload, licensees can submit a file which indicates that there are no changes to the technical data for the stations in operation. To do that, complete the spreadsheet up to Column E and place “NOCHANGE” in the Station Location column (Column F) of the uploaded file. Doing this indicates that those stations continue to be in operation and that the data on file remains current.

Uploading a file with “NOCHANGE” in the Station Location column (Column F) will fulfill your licence condition to provide the monthly upload of data.

Note: It is imperative that there be no data in the spreadsheet beyond Column F for any row or the file will be rejected by the system.

If you only need to update the Contact information on file, you can use the “NOCHANGE” method described in Q16: What if I don’t have any changes to the data that was previously submitted?

To update only the contact information on file for your account(s), enter the new contact information in the Contact Name, Business Telephone Number and/or e-mail Address fields in the file that you will upload, placing “NOCHANGE” in the Station Location field (Column F) and uploading the file using the new Append mode.

Contact information can also be updated with your monthly upload by putting the new contact information in the appropriate columns of the file.

Once the file is successfully processed, the new contact information will be saved and associated to your account(s).

Note: It is imperative that there be no data in the spreadsheet beyond Column F for any row if “NOCHANGE” is placed in Column F, or the file will be rejected by the system.

Questions can be directed to spectrumlicensing-licencesdespectre@ised-isde.gc.ca.