In the Report and Order section of the attached document, paragraphs 19 to 22, the FCC announces the end of regulatory fees for vanity call signs. Here is their reasoning (footnotes omitted): 19. In the FY 2014 NPRM, we sought comment on eliminating several of the smaller regulatory fee categories such as amateur radio Vanity Call Signs and GMRS. In the FY 2014 Report and Order, we concluded that we did not yet have adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighed the collected revenue or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process. We stated, however, that we would reevaluate this issue in the future. Since adoption of the FY 2014 Report and Order, Commission staff have had an opportunity to obtain and analyze support concerning the collection of fees from these regulatees. 20. The GMRS and amateur radio Vanity Call Sign regulatory fee categories comprise on average over 20,000 licenses that are newly obtained or renewed every five and 10 years, respectively. After five years, the GMRS licensee is responsible for renewing the license (or cancelling) and the Commission is responsible for maintaining accurate records of licenses coming up for renewal-an administrative burden on both GMRS users and on the Commission for renewing and maintaining records of these licenses. After analyzing the costs of processing fee payments for GMRS, we conclude that the Commission's cost of collecting and processing this fee exceeds the payment amount of $25. Our costs have increased over time and now that the costs exceed the amount of the regulatory fee, the increased relative administrative cost supports eliminating this regulatory fee category. 21. The Vanity Call Sign fee category has a small regulatory fee ($21.40 in FY 2014) for a 10-year license. The Commission often receives multiple applications for the same vanity call sign, but only one applicant can be issued that call sign. In such cases, the Commission issues refunds for all the remaining applicants. In addition to staff and computer time to process payments and issue refunds, there is an additional expense to issue checks for the applicants who cannot be refunded electronically. The Commission spends more resources on processing the regulatory fees and issuing refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment. As our costs now exceed the regulatory fee, we are eliminating this regulatory fee category. 22. The Commission will therefore eliminate the GMRS and Vanity Call Sign regulatory fee categories after the required congressional notification is provided. Once eliminated, these licensees will no longer be financially burdened with such payments and the Commission will no longer incur these administrative costs that exceed the fee payments. The revenue that the Commission would otherwise collect from these regulatory fee categories will be proportionally assessed on other wireless fee categories. This is a "permitted amendment" as defined in section 9(b)(3) of the Act, which, pursuant to section 9(b)(4)(B, must be submitted to Congress at least 90 days before it becomes effective. While some amateurs no doubt will be pleased that vanity call signs will be available at no cost, in the longer run this may threaten the existence of the vanity call sign program: there are likely to be more applications and therefore more expense, and a program that is optional for the Commission and that is all cost and no revenue is a likely target for budget cutting. Dave K1ZZ