The Satellite Industry Association further urged the FCC not to...
The Satellite Industry Association further urged the FCC not to complete the regulatory fee rulemaking before establishing fee amounts for this fiscal year. Accelerating the process will make it more likely that the easiest approach will be used, “violating both…
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fundamental equity and the statute’s requirement that fee assessments be linked to underlying costs,” SIA said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-201 (http://bit.ly/Uog127). The NPRM is aimed at determining how the FCC will reform its processes for assessing fees in the Wireless, Media, Wireline and International bureaus (CD Oct 25 p8). The filing recounted a meeting with SIA, some of its members and staff from the Enforcement Bureau and the Office of Managing Director on the collection and assessment of regulatory fees. SIA and its members further emphasized that “given the magnitude of the regulatory fees paid today by satellite operators, any increase in existing fee levels is extremely problematic,” it said. Such an increase “directly affects the bottom line for satellite operators and must be budgeted in advance,” it said. The NPRM suggests that the only commission full-time employees (FTEs) who should be attributed to a class of licensees for regulatory fee assessment purposes are those who work in the relevant licensing bureau, SIA said: This ignores the number of FTEs in other commission bureaus and offices “whose work is solely or primarily focused on a specific group of fee payers."