SB QST @ ARL $ARLB019
ARLB019 Vanity Call Sign Fee to Go Up in September

ZCZC AG19
QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 19  ARLB019
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  August 11, 2011
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB019
ARLB019 Vanity Call Sign Fee to Go Up in September

On August 10, the FCC announced via a Final Rule in the Federal
Register that the cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will
increase 90 cents, from $13.30 to $14.20.  The new fees take
effect 30 days after publication, making September 9, 2011, the
first day the new fee is in effect.  Earlier this year, the FCC
released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (NPRM), seeking
to raise the fee for Amateur Radio vanity call signs.

"The Commission tries to keep the regulatory fee for Vanity call
signs as minimal as possible," explained the FCC in its Final Rule.
"Between FY 2007 and FY 2010, the regulatory fee for Vanity call
signs increased from $1.17 per year to $1.33 per year, an increase
of $0.16 per year or $1.60 over a ten-year license period.  We do
not believe this increase is inequitable, and the Commission will
continue its efforts to keep this fee as minimal as possible.  The
fees that are collected from Vanity call signs are used to offset
the cost of monitoring and researching new call sign requests to
prevent the issuance of duplicate call signs."

The vanity call sign fee has fluctuated over the 14 years of the
current program -- from a low of $11.70 in 2007 to a high of $70 as
first proposed in the FCC's 1994 Report and Order.  In FY 2011, the
FCC expects to grant 14,600 vanity call signs, bringing in $207,320
from the vanity call sign program, and looks to recover a total of
$336,599,048 in fees from all the Services that it regulates.

The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable not only when
applying for a new vanity call sign, but also upon renewing a vanity
call sign for a new term.  The first vanity call sign licenses
issued under the current Amateur Radio vanity call sign program that
began in 1996 came up for renewal five years ago.  The FCC is
authorized by the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, to collect
vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associated with that
program.
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