What they are proposing:
More GMRS channels, at least low power 467 interstitials.
GMRS will still require a license. Repeaters still allowed.
GMRS will NOT get to run digital. No TDMA/DMR.
GMRS will have 10 year licensing terms. Aligned with part 90 and Amateur.
I didn't see anything that mentioned allowing Part 90 radios being allowed, but I may have skimmed over that part.
FRS/GMRS combo radios will become JUST FRS radios. The 462MHz FRS/GMRS interstitials will become "FRS", so they'll still have the same 22 channels.
FRS will be allowed to run 2 watts across the board.
No changes to MURS, that I saw.
CB gets rid of the stupid distance limitation rule.
No increase in CB power.
PLB's will have to be 406MHz. Can't be a PLB if it's not.
Overall, cleaned up the rules, standardized a bit more.
Considering this all could have gone sideways, they seemed to do a pretty good job of it.
I'm sure there are those that will complain that they are going to be personally injured by these rule changes, but I can't really see anything that was offensive to me. I know people are going to complain that they can't run DMR on GMRS, but the FCC's reasons for that make sense, at least to me.
Aligning the US FRS and the Canadian counterpart makes sense. Glad they did that.
The CB rule changes make sense, however it would have been nice if they'd allowed FM.
Should be interesting to read all your comments once people have had time to read through it. I only took about an hour and probably missed a few things.
It ain't law yet, but it's on it's way. Been a long time coming. What, 10 years now?