REGULATORY FEES FACT SHEETFederal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 August 2012 WHAT YOU OWE – COMMERCIAL WIRELESS SERVICES FOR FY 2012 The Commission’s automated filing and payment system (“Fee Filer”) is now available for filing and payment of FY 2012 regulatory fees. Regulatory fee payments must be RECEIVED by the Commission no later than 11:59 PM, ET, on September 13, 2012. This Fact Sheet pertains to holders of licenses in the following commercial wireless services: Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS), Broadband Radio Service (BRS) (formerly known as multipoint distribution service (MDS) and multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS)), and local multipoint distribution service (LMDS). CMRS licensees include: specialized mobile radio services (Part 90); public coast stations (Part 80); public mobile radio, cellular, 800 MHz air-ground radiotelephone, and offshore radio services (Part 22); and PCS broadband services (Part 24). The CMRS messaging services category includes all one-way (Parts 22 and 90), two-way paging, qualifying interconnected business radio services, 220-222 MHz land mobile systems (Part 90), PCS narrowband services (Part 24) (e.g. one-way and two-way paging), and all SMR systems authorized for operation with less than 10 MHz bandwidth (Part 90). All other private wireless regulatory fees that are not noted here are paid in advance for the full license term and are submitted along with the appropriate application fee. CMRS PROVIDERS Who Must Pay: CMRS cellular providers, CMRS mobile service licensees, and CMRS messaging licensees. The CMRS messaging category includes all one-way (Parts 22 and 90), two-way paging, qualifying interconnected business radio services, 220-222 MHz land mobile systems (Part 90), PCS narrowband services (e.g. one-way and two-way paging), and all SMR systems authorized for operation with less than 10 MHz bandwidth. CMRS providers owe regulatory fees for each license held as of October 1, 2011, even if a license expired after October 1, 2011. In instances where a license or authorization is transferred or assigned after October 1, 2011, the fee must be paid by the party that is the licensee or holder of the authorization on the date that the fee payment is due. Payment and Documentation Requirement: CMRS fees are assessed on the number of telephone numbers or unit counts, as stated in the table below. If you received a letter from the FCC regarding your CMRS cellular or mobile telephone number count based on your NRUF1 filing, and you have revisions to the subscriber count, you will need to enter Fee Filer to make your revision. The FCC will then review the revision and determine whether to approve or disapprove the new subscriber count. If 1 Numbering Resource Utilization Forecast (NRUF) report. 2the revised figure is disapproved, an FCC staff member will be contacting you for additional information. All other CMRS cellular and mobile licensees who did not receive a letter from the FCC should use the number of telephone numbers or units as of December 31, 2011. CMRS Messaging (Paging) licensees were not sent a letter from the FCC, and should therefore use the number of telephone numbers or units as of December 31, 2011 for their subscriber count. Pursuant to 47 CFR Section 1.1157(d), CMRS providers must retain for a period of two (2) years from the date on which their regulatory fee is paid, those business records that were used to calculate their fee payment. Type of Fee Regulatory Fee Payment Payment Type Code CMRS Cellular Radio (Part 22) and CMRS Mobile Services (Parts 22, 24, 27, 80 and 90) Beginning this year, all Cellular Radio and Mobile Services are to use the same Payment Type Code 0711. No one should use Payment Type Code 0712. $0.17 per telephone number/unit 1211 CMRS Messaging Services (Parts 22, 24 and 90) $0.08 per unit 1213 BRS (FORMERLY MDS AND MMDS) AND LMDS PROVIDERS Who Must Pay: BRS and LMDS providers owe regulatory fees for each license held as of October 1, 2011, even if a license expired after October 1, 2011. In instances where a license or authorization is transferred or assigned after October 1, 2011, the fee must be paid by the party that is the licensee or holder of the authorization on the date that the fee payment is due. Fee Requirement: Regulatory fees for BRS are assessed on a per license basis, whereas regulatory fees for LMDS are assessed on a per call sign basis as follows: Type of License Regulatory Fee Payment Type Code BRS (Formerly MDS/MMDS) $475 1214 LMDS $475 1285 LIMITATIONS ON CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS The U.S Treasury is rejecting the processing of Credit Card transactions greater than $49,999.99. The U.S. Treasury has published Treasury Financial Manual (TFM) No. A-2012- 02 (http://fms.treas.gov/tfm/vol1/announc.html) of February 2012 in which agencies are directed to limit Credit Card collections amounts not to exceed $49,999.99. 3The revised policy, effective June 30, 2012, lowers the maximum dollar amount allowed for a Credit Card transaction (previously at $99,999.99) and eliminates the maximum dollar limit for a debit card transaction. This new limit now applies to Credit Card transactions only. In addition, the U.S. Treasury will reject multiple Credit Card transactions from a single credit card in a single day that accumulate to more than $49,999.99. Transactions that cause the total of the transactions charged to the credit card on that day to exceed the total daily dollar-value limit of $49,999.00 will reject, the transactions that are below the limit will process. The FCC will institute policies that will conform to the U.S. Treasury policy. Entities needing to remit amounts of $50,000.00 or greater need to use alternative methods of payment: check, debit card, ACH or FedWire. Additional information can be found at http://transition.fcc.gov/fees/regfees.html. The FCC will post warnings on various FCC websites to remind entities making payments to the FCC of the U.S. Treasury policy of rejecting credit card transactions that exceed this single day limit of $49,999.99 per Credit Card per day. Regulatory Fee payments that violate the U.S. Treasury limit and are rejected by Treasury causing a payment not to meet the specified payment window requirements will be subjected to interest, fees, and a 25% Late Payment Penalty. MANDATORY USE OF FEE FILER For FY 2012, the use of the online system (Fee Filer) for payment of regulatory fees has not changed from the process used in FY 2011: licensees and regulatees must first enter the Commission’s Fee Filer system with a valid FRN and password, and follow the online prompts to generate a Form 159-E voucher to be submitted with the appropriate regulatory fee payment to the designated entity, U.S. Bank. Only Form 159-E vouchers generated from Fee Filer will be permitted to be submitted with regulatory fee payments to U.S. Bank. Instructions on the use and submission of Form 159-E payments are available on the Commission’s website at the industry-appropriate section under the heading, Who Owes Fees & What is My Fee FY2012 (http://transition.fcc.gov/fees/regfees.html). Please note that the use of the online Fee Filer system is mandatory, and filers are reminded that hardcopy/paper bills will no longer be mailed by the FCC. However, these bills are available for viewing in the Regulatory Fee link of Fee Filer. For additional information, please contact the Financial Operations Help Desk at 877-480-3201, Option 4. There are many benefits to licensees and regulatees in using the Commission’s Fee Filer system: 1) expeditious submission of payment; 2) no postage or courier costs (when paid electronically through Fee Filer); 3) fewer errors caused by illegible handwriting or payments submitted without an FRN number or the appropriate data attributes (e.g., payers will avoid receiving delinquency notices because of payment submission errors); 4) improved recordkeeping and payment reconciliation; 5) reduced administrative burden on both licensees and regulatees on Commission staff in processing regulatory fee payments; 6) less expensive than a wire transfer; and 7) a reduced burden of preparing, mailing, and storing paper documents. -FCC-