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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 181 / Wednesday, September 22, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
reduced the population counts used in the TVStudy by 16.9%, or the decline between the last census in 2010 and the current population estimate.
Additionally, the Commission limited the market served by primary television stations and commonly owned satellite broadcast stations in Puerto Rico to no more than 3.10 million people, the latest population estimate. We find that since commenters on this issue do not oppose the Commissions actions, we adopt our proposals in the FY 2021 NPRM to adjust the population and to limit the market served by all stations to the total population.
E. Toll-Free Numbers 15. We decline to revise our rules and remove a Responsible Organizations RespOrgss responsibility to pay regulatory fees for toll-free numbers.
Toll-free numbers allow callers to reach the called party without being charged for the call. With toll-free calls, the charge for the call is paid by the called party the toll-free subscriber instead.
Historically, the Commission has not assessed regulatory fees on toll-free numbers under the rationale that the entities controlling the numbers, wireline and wireless carriers, were paying regulatory fees based on either revenues or subscribers. For reasons discussed in the FY 2014 Report and Order and the FY 2015 Report and Order, the Commission established a regulatory fee obligation for RespOrgs that manage toll-free numbers, beginning in FY 2015, so that toll-free numbers are allocated in an equitable and orderly manner that serves the public interest under section 251e1
of the Act.
16. A commenter contends that the regulatory fee for toll-free numbers should be assessed differently for entities that are not carriers, arguing that carriers that report revenues on FCC
Form 499s, should be responsible for the payment of regulatory fees.
Commenter contends that clients should remit the fee to the Commission under their own FCC Registration Numbers.
We disagree and continue to believe that the existing process is orderly and equitable. While we recognize that many RespOrgs offset their fee payments to the Commission by passing these fees on to their customers who use the toll-free numbers, this practice is not mandatory. The statutory responsibility for payment of the regulatory fee rests solely with the regulated entity, the RespOrg, and not with customers of the RespOrg. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the RespOrg to pay the full amount of toll-free regulatory fees to the Commission by the fee due date.

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F. Submarine Cable Regulatory Fees 17. We adopt our proposal to use the same tiers for assessing fees on submarine cable operators for FY 2021
as in FY 2020, which are based on the lit capacity of the fiber-optic submarine cable. International bearer circuits IBCs consist of terrestrial and satellite circuits and submarine cable systems. Prior to 2009, IBC regulatory fees were collected based on 64 kbps circuits for each of the three types of facilities used to provide international service. In 2009, at the request of a large number of submarine cable operators 2009 Consensus Proposal, the Commission changed the methodology for assessing IBC fees and began to assess fees on a per cable landing license basis, with higher fees for larger submarine cable systems and lower fees for smaller submarine cable systems.
The Commission concluded that this methodology served the public interest and was competitively neutral because it included both common carriers and non-common carriers. Through FY
2019, the Commission continued to assess fees for international service provided over terrestrial and satellite facilities based on a per 64 kbps basis with the proportion of 87.6% for submarine cable operators, and 12.4%
for terrestrial and satellite facilities based on relative capacity at the time.
Later, the Commission adopted a fivetier structure for assessing fees on submarine cables systems, with larger systems paying more based on lit capacity, and a per gigabits per second Gbps assessment on active circuit capacity for terrestrial and satellite facilities.
18. In the FY 2020 Report and Order, the Commission revised the allocation of IBC fees and adopted new tiers for the fees. The Commission concluded that a ratio attributing 95% to submarine cables and 5% to terrestrial and satellite circuits would be more reasonable than the historic ratio. The Commission found again that capacity was an appropriate measure by which to assess IBC fees. The Commission rejected the use of a flat rate for submarine cables and adjusted the tiers for submarine cables. Subsequently, in the FY 2021
NPRM, we proposed to use the same tiers for assessing fees on submarine cable operators as the Commission adopted in the FY 2020 Report and Order. We find there are no significant changes in our regulatory framework and oversight of submarine cables, or changes in the marketplace, to reevaluate our fee framework based on lit capacity. As the Commission has previously stated, lit capacity is a
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reasonable basis to assess regulatory costs among the submarine cable regulatees that benefit from the Commissions work. We therefore find sufficient reason to adopt submarine cable systems fees based on lit capacity.
G. Space Station Regulatory Fees 1. NGSO Regulatory FeesLess Complex and Other 19. In 2020, the Commission adjusted the allocation of FTEs among GSO and NGSO space station and earth station operators. The Commission noted the disparity in number of units between GSO space stations 98 and NGSO
systems seven, and observed that many space stations can be operated under a single NGSO license while counting as a single unit for regulatory fee purposes, but only one satellite can be operated per GSO space station regulatory fee unit. To ensure that regulatory fees more closely reflect the work of FTEs oversight and regulation for each category, the Commission allocated 80% of space station regulatory fees to GSOs and 20% of the space station regulatory fees to NGSOs.
20. In the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking attached to the FY 2020
Report and Order, the Commission sought comment on adopting subcategories of NGSO systems for regulatory fee purposes. Based on comments received, we concluded that space systems planning to communicate with 20 or fewer U.S. authorized earth stations that are primarily used for Earth Exploration Satellite Service EESS
and/or Automatic Identification System AIS are significantly less complex to regulate than other types of NGSO
systems. We concluded that this category of less complex systems does in fact require fewer Commission resources for several reasons. Such systems rarely involve resourceintensive NGSO processing rounds, based on their ability to share with other operators in the requested frequency bands. The Other types of NGSO
systems typically have a more global presence, thereby requiring significantly more resources in connection with international forums. These other NGSO
systems also have significant spectrum needs and involve a variety of frequency bands, technical issues, and services, constituting a significant part of the International Bureaus NGSO work and resource allocation. We therefore adopted two new fee subcategories:
less complex NGSO systems and all other NGSO systems identified as other NGSO systems, both under the broader category of Space Stations Non-Geostationary Orbit with an 20/

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