The Satellite Industry Association urged the FCC to implement...

the commission’s proposed allocation of International Bureau FTEs, SIA said. SIA opposed Fireweed Communications’ support for revenue-based fee allocation. Fireweed “fails to present any supporting rationale that passes statutory muster,” SIA said. Fireweed argues that the FCC can eliminate all fee categories, “ignoring the fact that these categories were explicitly established by Congress when it adopted the regulatory fee framework,” SIA said. The commission also should use objective workload metrics wherever possible to assign support bureau FTEs among categories of fee payers, it said. SES, Inmarsat and Telesat urged the commission not to impose a regulatory fee on foreign-licensed satellites. The only FCC efforts solely focusing on such satellites involve processing requests for market access, “a one-time expenditure of resources that does not justify a recurring regulatory fee,” they said in a joint filing (http://bit.ly/13aGaXJ). In its comments, Intelsat listed the number of foreign satellites that have been approved to serve the U.S. through petitions for declaratory ruling, the parties said: This work doesn’t constitute ongoing regulation “and any associated costs would more appropriately be recovered through an application fee, not regulatory fees.” EchoStar and Dish also opposed imposing regulatory fees on non-U.S. satellites. Intelsat disregards the fact that the entities it references as foreign-issued authorization holders “are also holders of U.S. authorizations for satellite space stations, earth stations or both,” they said in joint comments (http://bit.ly/13aGMN2). They also urged the FCC to avoid altering the methodology for collecting fees from DBS licensees: Media Bureau activities relating to DBS “are certainly no greater than they were when the current fee structure was established in 1993.” DirecTV urged the FCC to reject the American Cable Association’s suggestion to impose such fees on DBS companies. The FCC may only amend the regulatory fee schedule “based on changes in law and regulation that, in turn, change the costs of regulating particular industry segments,” it said (http://bit.ly/19FMnd4).