FCC Again Looks at Quitting as Maritime Radio Accounting Authority

Fifteen years after the FCC said there's no public policy reason for it to remain the accounting authority settling up accounts between earth or coast stations and ships engaged in international maritime mobile communications, the agency is proposing to stop. In a second further NPRM issued Friday, the International Bureau said the FCC has acted as accounting authority since 1934, setting up accounts for maritime, aviation and hand-held terminal radio services for private and federal government users, but it cut back on that function for maritime mobile radio service and satellite-based services. The bureau said the reduction has come as private accounting authorities have done similar work and pointed to its 1999 NPRM and Further NPRM that included its decision to withdraw as an accounting authority in those maritime markets. The FCC said it tentatively concluded there should be a three-year transition period, but completion of that plan never happened. The Second Further NPRM sought comment on such approaches as requiring all customers to subscribe to an accounting authority or designating an accounting authority on every message, developing a formula to divvy up investigated messages among a number of private accounting authorities or appointing one private accounting authority as the new authority of last resort. It sought comment on enforcement or authority issues for each of the options and whether the FCC should designate an accounting authority of last resort specially for global maritime distress and safety system mobile satellite communications. The comment date will be 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, with reply comments due 30 days after that.