WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission was criticized last week by specialized mobile radio operators and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association regarding its proposed regulatory fee schedule for fiscal-year 2000.
Congress, which sets the amount of regulatory fees to be collected each year, told the FCC to collect 7.7 percent more for FY 2000 than it collected for 1999. Regulatory fees amount to about 80 percent of the FCC’s annual budget.
SMRs are upset because the FCC reverted back to last year’s proposed rules and lumped them with commercial mobile radio services operators.
“The assumption that `traditional’ SMR operators are capable of competing with other broadband CMRS services such as cellular and [personal communications services] is incorrect … `Traditional’ SMR operators lack the spectrum necessary to compete with the other services included in the CMRS category. While typical cellular licensees operate with 25 megahertz of spectrum and typical PCS licensees operate with 10 or 30 megahertz of spectrum, the `traditional’ SMR licensee operates with either 0.125 megahertz (five 25-kilohertz channels) at 800 MHz or 0.125 (10 12.5-kilohertz channels) at 900 MHz,” said the Council of Independent Communications Suppliers and USMSS Inc. Similar complaints were made by the American Mobile Telecommunications Association and BellSouth Corp.
Last year, the FCC changed SMRs from the CMRS category to the CMRS messaging category. The difference in fees between the two categories is substantial, with paging carriers paying only 4 cents per unit and CMRS carriers paying 32 cents per unit in 1999, and a proposed 31 cents in 2000.
Even though the charge for CMRS decreased, CTIA still objected, continuing a campaign it started last year. The association said its members are paying a larger share of the regulatory pie than they should and suggested the agency use a cost-based system to determine fees.
The FCC is concerned it would not collect enough fees to meet the congressional mandate if it used a cost-based calculation.
CTIA disagreed, noting the FCC collected more fees than it planned in 1999 because the government underestimated the total number of CMRS subscribers in 1998.
