Procedures for Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees; Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2008

The Commission seeks comment on proposals to reform the Commission's policies and procedures for assessing and collecting regulatory fees. Extensive changes have occurred in the communications marketplace, and in the Commission's regulatory efforts, since the Schedule of Regulatory Fees was enacted by Congress in 1994. In the period directly following enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, industry development and Commission regulation centered primarily on wireline local and long distance communications. Subsequently, however, the mobile wireless industry has grown exponentially, shifting Commission resources to, among other things, the wireless industry, while the costs of implementing the 1996 Telecommunications Act decreased. These changes have produced corresponding shifts in the Commission's regulatory activity. These shifts in the cost of the Commission's activities are not always reflected in our current regulatory fees. Although the Commission has made a number of discrete changes to the regulatory fee program since 1994, we have not revised the data on which our fees are based since 1998, nor have we undertaken a comprehensive analysis of all the substantive and procedural aspects of our regulatory fee program in light of the current state of the communications industry. This proceeding will serve as the means by which we will seek comment on the issues related to how the Commission should allocate its regulatory costs among different segments of the communications industry.

Agency Contact: Roland Helvajian, Office of Managing Director at (202) 418-0444.