Media Contact: 
Will Wiquist, (202) 418-0509
will.wiquist@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

FCC LEVELS PLAYING FIELD FOR REGULATORY FEES PAID BY FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC SPACE STATIONS
Commission Also Seeks Comment on All Proposed Regulatory Fees for FY2020 
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WASHINGTON, May 13, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted new rules to level the playing field for regulatory fees across satellite operators.  Specifically, the Report and Order approved by the Commission will ensure that domestic and foreign licensed space stations are responsible for the same regulatory fees by assessing fees on non-U.S. licensed commercial space stations that are granted access to the U.S. market by the FCC.  Before today, foreign-licensed space stations with access to the U.S. market were not required to pay regulatory fees to the FCC.    

The Commission also launched its annual process for establishing regulatory fees applied to all FCC-regulated industries by adopting a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which proposes to collect $339,000,000 in regulatory fees for Fiscal Year 2020.  The Commission is required by Congress to assess regulatory fees each year in an amount that can reasonably be expected to equal the amount of its appropriation.

The new fee rules for satellites will ensure that geostationary and non-geostationary space stations that are not licensed in the United States but have been granted access to the U.S. market by the FCC are responsible for the same fees as their U.S.-licensed competitors.  As the satellite marketplace grows rapidly, it is unfair to saddle American satellite companies with fees while their foreign competitors with the same market access do not face those same costs. 

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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).