Statement: Satellite filings cost recovery

Statement published 14 March 2019

A satellite filing provides international recognition of satellite networks and systems under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations. Ofcom carries out satellite filing work as the notifying administration for the UK under those Radio Regulations. Our satellite filing work enables a wide variety of satellite projects, from cubesats observing the Earth to constellations providing global broadband services.

Managing satellite filings costs Ofcom approximately £1m per year on average. To date, we have performed this work at no charge to the organisations who request that we manage their satellite filings. The Government initiated legislation to give us new powers in 2017 (under section 28A of the Communications Act 2003) to recover our costs for this work from the organisations that request it.

We consulted on proposals for satellite filing charges in June 2018 and received support for our preferred charging option (option 3), with some refinements suggested. This statement sets out the charges that we are now introducing and serves as our Notice of Charges for 2019/20.

What we have decided – in brief

We are introducing the following charges for our satellite filing work:

• An upfront application fee for new submission (and modification) requests. Non-GSO (geostationary orbit) filings with EPFD (Equivalent Power Flux Density) mask assessments will be charged a higher upfront application fee than for all other filing types, recognising the extra work they require.
• An annual management charge between the initial request and notification, incurred on 1 April annually (unless suspended or suppressed/cancelled), with different charges for different filing types based on the complexity of coordination requirements:
  • Non-coordinated API (Advance Publication Information) filings;
  • Less complex coordinated GSO and non-GSO filings (<100 ITU units); and
  • More complex coordinated GSO and non-GSO filings (≥100 ITU units).
• An application fee for notification requests. Non-coordinated filings will be charged a lower application fee than coordinated filings, recognising their reduced complexity.

Charges will apply to requests for all new filing submissions (and activities related to those new submissions) received by us from (and including) 1 April 2019. The relative size of each charge will reflect the average level of effort involved for that activity and filing type. Existing filings received on or before 31 March 2019 will not incur charges for any part of their management.