CTIA Opposes Shifting 'International Bearer Circuit' Regulatory Fees; Parties File Comments
CTIA opposed a proposal to replace "international bearer circuit" (IBC) regulatory fees with a fee on all holders of international Section 214 authorizations under the Communications Act. The group supports FCC efforts to ensure regulatory fees reflect agency work, but…
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criticized a Submarine Cable Coalition proposal to replace the IBC fees as unfair and inefficient. "The proposal would exempt non-common carrier submarine cable licensees and non-common carrier operators that own international circuits -- a category of operators the Commission included earlier this year -- while imposing new fees on resellers of international services who own no facilities but hold Section 214s, creating additional unnecessary administrative burdens and failing to reflect the work of Commission staff," said CTIA comments, which along with others were posted Friday and Monday in docket 17-134 responding to a Further NPRM (see 1709060050). The Satellite Industry Association "strongly opposes using a tier-based system developed to address extremely high-capacity submarine cable facilities to calculate fees for the tiny proportion of IBCs offered via satellite," it said. "Instead, the Commission should replace the satellite IBC fee with an assessment on international section 214 authorizations or simply retain the current assessment method for satellite IBCs." Addressing submarine cable fee tiers, CenturyLink's Level 3 said "revised fee tiers proposed by the Commission represent a reasonable update to the submarine cable fee assessment methodology. The proposed tiers maintain the balance of interests struck in 2009, while reflecting the upgrades that have been made to many of the cables that were in service in 2009 and the increased capacity of new and proposed cables." NCTA and the American Cable Association urged the FCC "to retain a current voluntary methodology for determining the number of subscribers" in a multiple dwelling unit, "but not restrict operators from using an alternative method of calculation." ITTA said the FCC should retain the MDU "bulk rate calculation, without modification."