NAB Opposes Forest Service Proposal to Add Comms Fee for Rural Coverage

The National Association of Broadcasters told the Federal Communications Commission that the industry opposes a proposal from the Forest Service to assess an annual programmatic fee on communication uses to cover the Forest Service’s costs of administering its communications use program. “NAB believes the Forest Service’s current proposal is unlawful, inequitable, and undermines the public interest. Citing the ‘need for wireless connectivity for teleworking, tele-education, telehealth, and telemedicine,’ and the need for the Forest Service to ‘do its part by ensuring it has the necessary staff and expertise to administer its communications use program,’ the Proposed Rule seeks to collect an additional ‘annual programmatic administrative fee of $1,400 per communications use authorization for wireless uses such as television and radio broadcasting, cellular telephone, and microwave’ to cover the costs of administering the Forest Service’s communications use program." NAB said the proposed fee would increase the total fee liability for existing broadcast uses serving smaller communities by nearly eight-fold in some cases, threatening their economic viability and potentially resulting in the loss of essential broadcast services in rural and remote areas.