FCC Revises Fee Structure for International Submarine Cables

The FCC

adopted a revised regulatory fee methodology for international submarine cable operators. The new rules calculate these regulatory fees on a per cable landing license basis -- with higher fees for larger international submarine cable systems and lower fees for smaller systems. This replaces the previous methodology that calculated fees on a per active circuit basis. In addition to being more administratively efficient,
the FCC said its new methodology allocates regulatory fees among service providers in an equitable and competitively neutral manner, without distinguishing between common carriers and noncommon carriers and by assessing a flat per cable landing license fee for all international
submarine cable systems based on size of the system.


The new methodology, which is slated to go into effect this fiscal year, is based on a consensus proposal submitted by a group representing 35 of 42 international submarine cable operators, and accounting for over 95 percent of the international circuits carried on submarine
cable systems.
http://www.fcc.gov