The Mobile Telecom Assn. (AMTA) complained to the FCC about a pro...

raised similar concerns. AMTA asked the FCC to reassess how it apportioned regulatory fees among service categories and for the information used to predict the number of units and “a full disclosure of the other half of the equation -- the methodology by which the FCC determines the percentage of the regulatory fee burden to be assumed by each payor category.” The group persuaded the FCC several years ago to reclassify 2-way commercial mobile radio service operators with spectrum holdings below a certain level as “CMRS messaging service” for purposes of regulatory fees. AMTA said the fee for that service was 4 cents per unit in 2000, 5 cents in 2001 and 8 cents in 2002. This year, the FCC proposed raising it to 11 cents. “AMTA is deeply troubled by the FCC’s apparent disregard for its obligation to consider not only the number of units served but the burden their regulation places on the Commission in calculating the appropriate annual regulatory fee,” it said. Arch and others in a joint filing said the FCC’s method for assessing regulatory fees violated Sec. 9 of the Communications Act, which directed the Commission to assess regulatory fees to recover the costs of activities such as enforcement, rulemaking, user information services. Sec. 9 requires the fees be based on the number of employees performing the activities and be “reasonably related” to the benefits received by those who paid. “By its own admission, the Commission does not utilize any cost-accounting methodology to apportion regulatory fee revenue requirements and has not done so since 1999,” the groups said. If the FCC made cost-based adjustments in its fee categories, the revenue collected from CMRS messaging providers would fall sharply, they said. “It takes no amount of detailed analysis to immediately realize that the Commission has radically reduced the resources it expends on regulating the messaging industry while contemporaneously redirecting significant resources to regulate just about every other industry sector subject to regulatory fees,” the filing said. Separately, the law firm Bennet & Bennet asked the FCC to remove the local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) from its Multipoint Distribution service category under its regulatory fee system. The firm wants LMDS classified as a microwave service. “Classifying LMDS along with MDS as ‘multipoint distribution’ rather than with other fixed microwave services such as the 24 GHz and 39 GHz services, places LMDS at a competitive disadvantage without a rational basis,” it said.