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Introduction:

Ofcom is improving arrangements around the setting and collection of Wireless Telegraphy Act fees (WT Act) in two ways:

• The introduction of a new process to ensure that your renewal fee is set appropriately to reflect your spectrum requirements.
• The introduction of a new fee facility to allow a licensee’s renewal fees to be offset by a credit from any links surrendered during the period from their last renewal.

Renewal Process:

Three months before the renewal date:

Ofcom will issue a validation notice which will include administrative and technical details of the licences and links you are authorised to use. Licensees will then have an opportunity to request Ofcom to make any changes to their licensing arrangements and to inform us of any other changes we need to make to our records.

To enable Ofcom to issue an accurate “bill”, changes must be made within one month of receipt of this notice. Later requests for changes will be processed in the usual way and factored into the following year’s renewal fee.

One month before the renewal date:

Ofcom will issue a “bill” (formally known as a Renewal Notice containing a Request for Payment). The “bill” will reflect any changes that arise from the validation process that were submitted within the requested time period.

It is a condition of a WT Act licence that renewal fees are paid on or before the renewal date. If you are a ‘stage payment’ customer your first payment must be made before the renewal date.

Single billing date:

A single billing date will be provided to customers who have a number of licences, if they all have the same renewal date and the same billing contact. These customers will receive a single validation notice detailing all their licences and a single bill.

If you have a number of licences with different renewal dates you can contact the Licensing team after receiving your validation notice to arrange for them to have the same renewal dates.

Where Ofcom are replacing single licences with multiple licences as part of our licence for a link initiative, each new licence will automatically have the same renewal date as its parent licence.

Diagram 1: Ofcom’s Renewal Process:

 

New Payment Facilities:

Ofcom is introducing a new payment facility which will allow a licensee’s renewal fees to be offset by a credit from any links surrendered during the period from their last renewal. The changes were set out in the ‘Modifications to Spectrum Pricing’ consultation published in July 2006, and further explained in the statement of 10 January 2007, following the consultation in 2006.

This can be found at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/pricing06/

The payment facility will only be provided to licences with the same renewal date within the same class.

Adequate notice should be given to Ofcom of the intention to surrender a licence for it to be eligible for a credit. If you are unable to give us notice of surrender we will apply the change as soon as we are able to process your request.

The value of credit will be calculated in accordance with the WT Fee Regulations that were in place when the link was last renewed or originally authorised (depending which is later), so that the appropriate proportion the original fee paid is credited.

The WT Fees order states that part months are charged as per a whole month. For example if your normal renewal is end of December and you give us one month’s advance notice that you wish to surrender a link in mid February then you will receive 10 months (March – December) pro rata credit based on the link surrendered.

We will only offset your renewal fees against links surrendered during the year. We will not issue cash refunds of WT Act licence fees for links surrendered early (before your renewal date). Ofcom will not make repayments for surrendered links if there is no continued licensing from which such abatement can be made.

Further Information:

If you have any questions regarding these changes, or existing licences please email fixedlinklicensing@ofcom.org.uk or call 0300 123 1000 or 020 7981 3131 .

Further information will be published on Ofcom’s website: www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/fixed/

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