FCC to Levy Regulatory Fees on VoIP Providers
The FCC will levy regulatory fees on VoIP providers starting this year, it said in an order issued Monday. The FCC said earlier this year it was inclined to seek fees from VoIP companies. Now that they have to pay into the Universal Service Fund, paying regulatory fees was a natural extension, the commission said. The FCC said Section 9 of the Communications Act gives the commission authority to impose regulatory fees on VoIP providers.
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The commission disagreed with the VON Coalition’s argument that the FCC can impose regulatory fees only “on entities subject to licensing or certification requirements.” To the contrary, “to construe section 9 as narrowly as the VON Coalition proposes would prohibit the Commission from recovering costs from providers that impose costs on the Commission,” said the order.
The FCC also voted to expand its billing efforts for licensees of earth stations and cable television relay service. In a further proposed rulemaking, it asked for comments on how to structure fees for Broadband Radio Service. The FCC decided last year to use a megahertz- based fee structure for BRS but now wants comments on specific questions about carrying that out.
The agency is required to collect more than $290 million in regulatory fees overall in FY 2007, based on formulas set by Congress. The money will be collected “during a filing window in September.” As expected (CD April 20 p9), most of the fees will be about 2.84 percent lower than last year’s.
FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein expressed concerns about parts of the regulatory fee order and issued concurring statements. Copps said he thinks a broad rulemaking should be opened to address possible adjustments in the way regulatory fees are collected. “In a rapidly-evolving communications marketplace, we need to look for ways to ensure that our regulatory fee methodologies continue to reflect the industries we regulate,” Copps said.
He and Adelstein also expressed disappointment that the FCC didn’t deal with fee issues raised by submarine cable operators. Since the FCC already opened a rulemaking to deal with BRS issues, it should have included submarine cable operators, Adelstein said. These companies “have argued that the current fee structure results in certain operators paying fees that can approach the wholesale prices they receive from their consumers,” he said in a written statement. “Given that these operators have pending a petition for rulemaking before the Commission, it is high time for the Commission to seek comment on these issues and is regrettable that we do not do so here.”