The Federal Communications Commission recently released an Order, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding regulatory fee changes. In the Order, the Commission adopted changes that will apply to the FY 2014 fee collection. In particular, the Commission will no longer accept checks and accompanying hardcopy forms for regulatory fee payments. Instead, all payments must be made by online ACH payment, online credit card, or wire transfer. Also, the Commission combined UHF/VHF regulatory fees into one digital television fee category and included IPTV in the cable television systems category.
The Commission is also seeking comment on the proposed FY 2014 regulatory fees and additional proposals for regulatory reform. These proposals involve consideration of the following concepts: (1) combining certain regulatory fee categories; (2) creating new fee categories; and (3) reallocating direct or indirect full time employees. Comments are due July 7, and reply comments are due on July 14, 2014.
