[W3GV] FCC Eliminates Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Regulatory Fee

[Ucdavid--- via W3GV]

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB019
ARLB019 FCC Eliminates Amateur Radio Vanity Call  Sign Regulatory Fee

ZCZC AG19
QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin  19  ARLB019
>From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  May 26,  2015
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB019
ARLB019 FCC  Eliminates Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Regulatory Fee

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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