US FCC unveils 2024 regulatory fee schedule

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released its regulatory fee schedule for fiscal year 2024, targeting a collection of $390 million. The FCC has introduced favourable terms for instalment payments to ease the financial impact, including reduced interest rates and removing down payments due to the significant increase in fees from the previous year.

Fee payors requesting waivers, reductions, deferrals, or instalment payments must provide detailed financial documentation with their applications. Concurrently, the FCC is conducting its annual assessment under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act to evaluate the deployment of advanced telecommunications capabilities across the US, seeking input on broadband metrics, speed benchmarks, and methodologies for identifying unserved areas.

Additionally, the FCC proposes new rules to enhance consumer protection against illegal and unwanted calls and texts, including expanded blocking requirements and a new SIP code 603+ for notifying blocked calls on IP networks. The proposed rules also include penalties for providers that fail to prevent the use of their networks for illegal calls.

In other regulatory matters, the FCC is considering changes to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) framework to improve federal protection and commercial spectrum access in the 3.5 GHz band, with comments due by early October and replies by early November 2024. The Commission is also evaluating a proposal to allow non-geostationary satellites to operate in the 17.3-17.8 GHz band, aligning US regulations with international standards and managing shared use with geostationary satellites and terrestrial services.