FCC Eliminates Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Regulatory Fee
05/22/2015 - ARRL
The FCC is eliminating the regulatory fee to apply for an Amateur Radio
vanity call sign. The change will not go into effect, however, until
required congressional notice has been given. This will take at least 90
days. As the Commission explained in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,
Report and Order, and Order (MD Docket 14-92 and others), released May
21, it’s a matter of simple economics.
“The Commission spends more resources on processing the regulatory fees
and issuing refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment,” the
FCC said. “As our costs now exceed the regulatory fee, we are
eliminating this regulatory fee category.” The current vanity call sign
regulatory fee is $21.40, the highest in several years. The FCC reported
there were 11,500 “payment units” in FY 2014 and estimated that it would
collect nearly $246,100.
In its 2014 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding the
assessment and collection of regulatory fees for FY 2014, the FCC had
sought comment on eliminating several smaller regulatory fee categories,
such as those for vanity call signs and GMRS. It concluded in the
subsequent Report and Order (R&O) last summer, however, that it did not
have “adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and
burden on small entities outweighed the collected revenue or whether
eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process.”
The FCC said it has since had an opportunity to obtain and analyze
support concerning the collection of the regulatory fees for Amateur
Vanity and GMRS, which the FCC said comprise, on average, more than
20,000 licenses that are newly obtained or renewed, every 10 and 5
years, respectively.
“The Commission often receives multiple applications for the same vanity
call sign, but only one applicant can be issued that call sign,” the FCC
explained. “In such cases, the Commission issues refunds for all the
remaining applicants. In addition to staff and computer time to process
payments and issue refunds, there is an additional expense to issue
checks for the applicants who cannot be refunded electronically.”
The Commission said that after it provides the required congressional
notification, Amateur Radio vanity program applicants “will no longer be
financially burdened with such payments, and the Commission will no
longer incur these administrative costs that exceed the fee payments.
The revenue that the Commission would otherwise collect from these
regulatory fee categories will be proportionally assessed on other
wireless fee categories.”
The FCC said it would not issue refunds to licensees who paid the
regulatory fee prior to its official elimination.
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Duane Whittingham - N9SSN
(ARES/RACES, EmComm, Skywarn & Red Cross)
(Melrose Park Public Safety & Homeland Security)
http://www.mpdes.org
http://www.radiodude.info
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