SB QST @ ARL $ARLB023   
   ARLB023 Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee to Disappear in September   
      
   ZCZC AG23   
   QST de W1AW   
   ARRL Bulletin 23  ARLB023   
   > From ARRL Headquarters   
   Newington CT  July 30, 2015   
   To all radio amateurs   
      
   SB QST ARL ARLB023   
   ARLB023 Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee to Disappear in September   
      
   The Amateur Radio vanity call sign regulatory fee is set to disappear in the   
   next few weeks. According to the best-available information from FCC sources,   
   the first day that applicants will be able to file a vanity application   
   without having to pay a fee is Thursday, September 3. In deciding earlier this   
   year to drop the regulatory fee components for Amateur Radio vanity call signs   
   and   
   General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) applications, the FCC said it was doing so   
   to save money and personnel resources. The Commission asserted that it costs   
   more of both to process the regulatory fees and issue refunds than the amount   
   of the regulatory fee payment.   
      
   "Our costs have increased over time, and now that the costs exceed the amount   
   of the regulatory fee, the increased relative administrative cost supports   
   eliminating this regulatory fee category," the FCC said in its Report and   
   Order, which appeared on July 21 in The Federal Register. "Once [it's]   
   eliminated, these licensees will no longer be financially burdened with such   
   payments, and the Commission will no longer incur these administrative costs   
   that exceed the fee payments."   
      
   The FCC raised the Amateur Service vanity call sign regulatory fee from $16.10   
   to its current $21.40 for the 10-year license term in 2014. The $5.30 increase   
   was the largest such fee hike in many   
   years. In a typical fiscal year, the FCC collected on the order of $250,000 in   
   vanity call sign regulatory fees.   
      
   The FCC said the revenue it would otherwise collect from such regulatory fees   
   "will be proportionally assessed on other wireless fee categories." Congress   
   has mandated that the FCC collect nearly   
   $340 million in regulatory fees from all services in fiscal year 2015.   
      
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   )\/(ark   
      
   ... Life is a game, and money is how you keep score...   
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