EWA Recommends Eliminating PLMRS Regulatory Fees

In comments filed on June 22, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) announced support of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal to raise the de minimis regulatory fee threshold from $500 to $1,000. However, given that changes to the ULS would be necessary to decouple licensing and regulatory fees, there would be no immediate way to apply the threshold exemption to multi-year licenses within the Private Land Mobile Radio Services (PLMRS). 

Further, in response to an FCC inquiry whether there are “categories of regulatory fee payors that now have very little Commission oversight or regulation, apart from the application fee process” which could benefit from relief, EWA stated that non-public safety and non-governmental private land mobile radio (PLMR) regulatory fee payors have required little regulatory oversight. EWA also noted that no “new spectrum has been allocated for these entities for more than thirty (30) years, and in the past five years, EWA is aware of only five regulatory proceedings that are primarily PLMR-centric, and the interests of public safety users figure prominently in all but one. 

As the FCC’s wireless activities have focused increasingly on broadband matters, non-public safety PLMR licensees have not received any significant regulatory benefits that would justify the current regulatory fee structure, thus EWA recommended that the PLMR Service fee categories be eliminated.