KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

license fees

New amateur radio license fees going into effect April 19, 2022

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The $35 licensing fee that’s been talked about for more than a year now will finally be going into effect on April 19, 2022, according to Public Notice A-22-307A1, dated March 23, 2022. It says:

This Public Notice announces that the new application fee rates for the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, codified at 47 CFR § 1.1102, will become effective on April 19, 2022. Wireless application fees can be paid through the Commission’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) at https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/universal-licensing-system.

For further guidance regarding Wireless Telecommunications Bureau application fees, please refer to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Fee Filing Guide located at https://www.fcc.gov/licensing-databases/fees/application-processing-fees. For further information regarding this Public Notice, please contact Roland Helvajian, Program Analyst, Financial Operations, Office of the Managing Director, [email protected].

I emailed Roland Helfajian and asked the following questions:

  • Will the Universal Licensing System have some kind of online form that licensees will use to pay the fee?
  • Will new licenses not go into effect until the licensee has paid the fee?
  • What if a licensee doesn’t have a credit card?

He replied:

Yes, there will be a form online in ULS similar to completing an application.  Generally, licensees have 10 days to pay a fee before their application is dismissed.  If they do not have a credit card, they may have a problem.  As of right now, they can mail in a check and a hardcopy Form 159 to U.S. Bank in St. Louis, MO, but the Commission will be closing the Wireless Lockbox soon.  I believe after the Lockbox is closed, all payments will need to be electronic.

UPDATE 3/31/22

This from the ARRL:

New FCC Application Fee Will Not Apply To Amateur Radio License Upgrades

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staff has clarified in response to an ARRL request that the new $35 application fee will not apply to most license modifications, including those to upgrade a licensee’s operator class and changes to club station trustees. The FCC staff explained that the new fees will apply only to applications for a new license, renewal, rule waiver, or a new vanity call sign. As previously announced, the new fees take effect on April 19, 2022.

“We are pleased that the FCC will not charge licensees the FCC application fee for license upgrade applications,” said ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) Manager, Maria Somma, AB1FM. “While applicants for a new license will need to pay the $35 FCC application fee, there will be no FCC charge for future upgrades and administrative updates such as a change of mailing or email address. Most current licensees therefore will not be charged the new FCC application fee until they renew their license or apply for a new vanity call sign.”

ARLB021 FCC Application Fees Unlikely to Go into Effect Until 2022

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From the ARRL:
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 21 ARLB021
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT August 17, 2021
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB021
ARLB021 FCC Application Fees Unlikely to Go into Effect Until 2022

The schedule of FCC amateur radio application fees likely will not go into effect before 2022. FCC staff confirmed during a recent virtual meeting with Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs) that the agency is still working on the necessary changes to the Universal Licensing System (ULS) software and other processes and procedures that must be in place before it starts collecting fees from amateur applicants. Earlier this year, the FCC said it would not start collecting fees from amateur applicants before this Summer. The new estimate is that the fees won’t go into effect until early next year.

Once it’s effective, the $35 application fee will apply to new, modification (upgrade and sequential call sign change), renewal, and vanity call sign applications. All fees will be per application. Administrative update applications, such as those to change a licensee’s name, mailing, or email address, will be exempt from fees. ARRL VEC manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, said Volunteer Examiner (VE) teams will not face the burden of collecting the $35 fee.

“Once the FCC application fee takes effect, new and upgrade applicants will pay the exam session fee to the VE team as usual, but they’ll pay the $35 application fee directly to the FCC using the FCC Pay Fees system,” she explained. When the FCC receives the examination information from the VEC, it will email a link with payment instructions to each successful candidate who then will have 10 days from the date of the email to pay.

The FCC Pay Fees system can be accessed at https://apps2.fcc.gov/Batch_Filer/login.cfm .

After the fee is paid and the FCC has processed an application, examinees will receive a second email from the FCC with a link to their official license. The link will be good for 30 days. Licensees also will be able to view, download, and print official license copies by logging into their FCC ULS account. The FCC no longer provides printed licenses.

Licensees can log into the ULS with their 10-digit FRN (FCC Registration Number) and password at any time to view and manage their license and application, print their license, and update anything in their FCC license record, including adding an email address.

FEE SCHEDULE:

INDIVIDUALS –

$35 FEE: New, modification (upgrade and sequential call sign change), renewal, and vanity call sign applications. All fees will be per application.

NO FEE: Administrative updates, such as a change of name, mailing or email address, or license cancellation.

AMATEUR RADIO CLUBS –

$35 FEE: New, renewal, trustee change, and vanity call sign applications. All fees will be per application.

NO FEE: Administrative updates, such as a change of name, mailing or email address, or license cancellation.

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FCC Sets Amateur License Fee at $35

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In Report and Order FCC 20-184, the FCC has set the amateur radio licensing fee at $35. It includes quite a bit of commentary on how it decided on that amount. In the R&O they noted, “We agree with commenters asserting this fee is too high to account for the minimal staff involvement in these applications and therefore adopt a reduced amount of $35 fee for all personal license application fees.”

They also addressed some other other concerns brought up by the nearly 4,000 people who commented on the amateur radio license fee. For example, they write:

Numerous commenters suggest that amateur radio licenses should be exempted or are exempt under section 8(d)(1) of the Act. We disagree and note as a starting point that the Commission has no authority to create an exemption where none presently exists. Thus, if an exemption exists, it must be contained within the wording of section 8(d)(1) of the Act.61 None of the listed exemptions apply to exempt Amateur Radio Service licenses.

Basically, what they are saying is that since Congress did not specifically exempt amateur radio, they cannot do it on their own.

The FCC also disagreed with the argument that the Amateur Radio Service should be exempt from fees because amateur radio operators provide emergency and public communications:

[The argument] that amateur radio licenses should be exempt under section 8(d)(1)(B) as they are “operating for all intents and purposes as non-profit entities” because they provide public safety and special emergency radio services in times of crisis on a volunteer basis. While we are very much aware of these laudable and important services amateur radio licensees provide to the American public, we do not agree that amateur radio licenses fit within the section 8(d)(1)(B) exemption Congress provided. These specific exemptions do not apply to the amateur radio personal licenses. Emergency communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules. Further, there is no indication that most or all amateurs solely use their license for emergency communications; even the section of our rules allowing certain amateur operators to broadcast civil defense communications limit such authorization to periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies. As we have noted previously, “[w]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service.

How’s that for a zinger?

They also addressed the argument that it will discourage younger people and others who may not be able to afford the fee from entering the  hobby:

ARRL and many individual commenters additionally claim that the proposed fee will harm the public interest by discouraging people who are younger from becoming licensed or by causing people who are older and living on fixed income to leave the service (depriving others of their skills and experience). These commenters explain that participation in the amateur radio service can be an entry point to science, technology, engineering, and math careers. They also note that amateur licensees have driven innovation in communications and other technologies. While we agree that participation in the Amateur Radio Service offers important public interest benefits, that determination does not alter our obligation under RAY BAUM’s Act to adopt cost-based fees for processing applications regarding nonexempt service.

They also addressed the argument should this fee go into effect, the FCC should then use that money to provide better enforcement. They write:

These commenters argue that if the Commission adopts application fees for the service, it should use the fees for the benefit of licensees, for example, by taking more robust enforcement actions against unlawful operators.88 While we appreciate the commenters’ diligent advocacy for their service, we remind them that the Commission does not have discretion on how to use application fees, which must be deposited in the U.S. Treasury.

To address the arguments that the FCC’s hands are tied with respect to imposing the fees and how the fees are to be used, the ARRL is going to gear up its lobbying effort. The next time a bill like this is in the works, someone is going to have to be looking out for amateur radio and ensure that specific language gets put into the bill. Unfortunately, that’s how our system works when your interests are not very high on the priority list.

The date on which the FCC will start charging the fee has not yet been set, but it will be announced at least 30 days in advance. The FCC needs time to develop the procedures detailing how and when the fees will be collected.

You can download the entire Report & Order by going to https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf

ARRL seeks waiver of proposed FCC amateur application fees

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SB QST @ ARL $ARLB035
ARLB035 ARRL Seeks Waiver of Proposed FCC Amateur Application Fees

ZCZC AG35
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 35 ARLB035
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT November 19, 2020
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB035
ARLB035 ARRL Seeks Waiver of Proposed FCC Amateur Application Fees

ARRL has urged the FCC to waive its proposed $50 amateur radio application fee. The Commission proposal was made last month in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in MD 20-270. The proposal already has drawn more than 3,200 individual comments overwhelmingly opposed to the plan. The fees, directed by Congress and imposed on all FCC-regulated services, are to recover the FCC’s costs of handling and processing applications.

The NPRM can be found in PDF format at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-116A1.pdf .

“Amateur radio applications were not listed when the Congress adopted its 1985 fee schedule for applications, and therefore amateur license applications were excluded from the collection of fees,” ARRL said on November 16 in its formal comments on the proposal. “Similarly, a decade later when regulatory fees were authorized, the Amateur Service was excluded, except for the costs associated with issuing vanity call signs.” The new statutory provisions are similar. Amateur radio license applications are not addressed in the application fees section and explicitly excluded from regulatory fees,” ARRL said, and there is “no evidence of any intent by Congress to change the exempt status of amateur applications and instead subject them to new fees.”

ARRL’s formal comments can be found online at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/111762316365 .

ARRL argued that the FCC has explicit authority to waive the fees if it would be in the public interest, and should do so for the Amateur Radio Service. Unlike other FCC services, the Amateur Radio Service is all volunteer and largely self-governing, with examination preparation, administration, and grading handled by volunteers, who submit licensing paperwork to the FCC, ARRL pointed out.

“Increasingly, the required information is uploaded to the Commission’s database, further freeing personnel from licensing paperwork as well as from day-to-day examination processes,” ARRL said. “The addition of an application fee will greatly increase the complexity and requirements for volunteer examiners.”

The Communications Act, ARRL noted, also permits the FCC to accept the volunteer services of individual radio amateurs and organizations in monitoring for rules violations. In 2019, ARRL and the FCC signed a memorandum of understanding to renew and enhance the ARRL’s Volunteer Monitor program, relieving the Commission of significant time-consuming aspects of enforcement.

These volunteer services lessen the regulatory burden – including the application burden – on the Commission’s resources and budget in ways that licensees in other services do not, ARRL said.

Amateur radio’s role in providing emergency and disaster communication, education, and other volunteer services also justifies exempting radio amateurs from FCC application fees. For example, ARRL noted, last year more than 31,000 participated as members of the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), and local ARES teams reported taking part in more than 37,000 events, donating nearly 573,000 volunteer hours, providing a total value of more than $14.5 million.

Amateur radio also has motivated many students to develop critical science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills. ARRL noted that the Amateur Radio Service contributes to the advancement of the radio art, advances skills in communication and technology, and expands the existing reservoir of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts – all expressed bases and purposes of the Amateur Radio Service.

“Accomplishing these purposes entails working with young people, many of whom may have difficulty paying the proposed application fees of $50, $100, or $150,” ARRL said. “The $150 fee would be the cost of passing the examinations for the three amateur license levels in three examination sessions,” ARRL said. “Such multiple application fees to upgrade would dampen the incentive to study and demonstrate the greater proficiency needed to pass the examinations for the higher amateur classes.”

ARRL concluded that the FCC should exercise its authority to exempt amateur radio from application fees generally. If the FCC cannot see its way clear to waive fees for all amateur radio license applications, the fees should be waived for applicants age 26 years and younger. Such individuals, ARRL contended, have the most to contribute to the future of radio technology and other STEM-related activities and are the most likely to find the proposed application fees burdensome.
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