FCC Regulatory Fees Due on Sept. 26

The FCC has announced that FY 2017 regulatory fees must be filed and paid before 11:59 p.m., EDT, on September 26, 2017. Payments received after that time will be assessed a 25% late payment fee, face possible additional administrative and interest fees, and will immediately result in Red Light status. All payments must be made by online ACH payment, online credit card, or wire transfer.  No checks will be accepted.

The FCC does not send regulatory fee bills or notices.  All companies must begin the payment process by accessing the FCC’s Fee Filer system with their FCC registration number (FRN) and password or FCC username and password.

Some fee data is populated in Fee Filer, but carriers are responsible for payment of all regulatory fees owed, regardless of whether or not data is pre-populated. Among the FY 2017 fees are the following:

  • Interstate Telecommunications Service Providers (ITSPs) will be assessed $.00302 per revenue dollar based on the April 1, 2017, Form 499-A. Remember that although you may have elected for NECA to administer the ITSP regulatory fee for your ILEC, you must initiate payment via Fee Filer for any other assessment that may be due for separate entity CLEC, long distance or VoIP interstate ITSP revenue.
  • Cable TV operators (including IPTV) will be assessed $0.95 per subscriber based on the company’s total basic cable TV subscribers as of December 31, 2016.

The de minimis exemption has increased to $1,000. If the total FY 2017 annual regulatory fee liability for all categories of annual fees due for the same entity is $1,000 or less, that entity is exempt from payment of FY 2017 regulatory fees.

More information on regulatory fees and payment procedures can be found on the FCC’s Regulatory Fees webpage.

If you have any questions, please contact Marty Kluh in JSI’s Maryland office at 301-459-7590.