The FCC has eliminated the regulatory fee required to obtain a license for the GMRS.
In a Report and Order released May 21, 2015 as part of the FCC's notice of proposed regulatory fees for fiscal year 2015, the commission issued a Report and Order to eliminate the regulatory fee for the General Mobile Radio Service effective this year.
The fee, which was previously assessed at $5 per year, added $25 to the total cost of a GMRS license, which has a term of five years. While it does not eliminate the cost of a license altogether, the complete elimination of the regulatory fee brings the total cost of a General Mobile Radio Service license from $90 down to $65.
According to the FCC, the fee simply wasn't worth the cost. in the Report and Order, the commission stated:
"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."
The GMRS license required two fees, the application fee and the FCC regulatory fee. The total cost of a GMRS license has risen through the years, mostly due to automatic, scheduled increases in the application fee. In 2014 the total cost of a GMRS license rose again, from $85 to $90. The cost of a GMRS license is currently greater than the cost of most higher end GMRS radios for which the license is required to operate, and more than double the cost of an entry level radio.
The disproportionately high cost of GMRS licensing compared to other types of radio service licenses and to the GMRS radio equipment itself has been a growing complaint among GMRS users, and is a primary reason why many who are aware of the license requirement do not purchase one.
The FCC, acknowledging the problem, gave it as another reason to remove the fee. "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 commission added in the report.
This is not the first time the FCC has considered the costs and caveats of licensing the GMRS. In 2010, the commission proposed to do away with the requirement for individual licensing altogether and instead license by rule. However, backlash from the community of licensed GMRS users helped stall the decision and as the FCC has since noted on their web site, "the proposal is still pending".
Is the elimination of the GMRS regulatory fee the beginning of the end of the individual GMRS license requirement? If not, will the application fee remain and continue to rise automatically on its own until it even surpasses the previous $90 fee?
Tell us what you think. Enter your comments below.
As for the cost of a ham radio license, it actually doesn't have a set amount and it isn't set by the FCC. It's charged by the group that does the testing, and it basically only covers the cost of taking the test, which varies from about $10-$15. A ham license is valid for 10 years and renewal is free.
The reason the ham tests are required is because amateur (ham) radio is intended for hobby and experimental use. What this means is that a ham is allowed and authorized by the FCC to build, test and operate his or her own radio equipment. There are some important things to know before one jumps in to do any experimentation on the airwaves. At the very least, it can cause interference or disruption to others across the radio spectrum, and at worst it can be harmful or extremely dangerous. Would you want someone to get a driver license without learning how to drive a car through a busy town or down a freeway at 70 miles an hour? Same idea.
Also, satellite operation in ham radio is just one aspect of the hobby. There are many other facets to it that don't involve satellite communications at all, but long distance propagation instead, simply by using specific atmospheric conditions and a home made antenna to bounce the signal around the world. These require some training to understand how to utilize them.
Getting back to GMRS, it's a service for those who have a specific need for it. For the rest, there is FRS. The FRS radios are usually what you referred to as bubble pack radios, and although they are sometimes used by kids, they are also used by many adults for a myriad of activities including camping, hiking, hunting, sports, school and church operations, neighborhood watches, and even bird watching! Many businesses use FRS radios as well, for everything from hotel management to retail, restaurant and jobsite maintenance operations. With the recent pandemic, FRS radios are also used for curbside service and stay-at-home or quarantine situations.
Everything has a place, and there's a place for everything. When it comes to radios, the sky's the limit. literally.
Why pay for your license and not have digital privileges and operate analog? Because you are paying a FEE to not learn rules and pass a TEST like HAM's do. - Truth!
Want to talk between cars on a trip? Kids playing around in the hood? Get FRS radios!
Want to be license free and fee free? Go get a CB radio, MURS or FRS, work simplex!
- Issue solved. Your welcome.
So paying a shop to do it for you would be like 400$ +. Figuring it out on my own took longer but only cost me 70$ at the end of the day. The PDF application is so confusing, my advise, just do it all online, FCC auto guides you to the parts of the app that relate to GMRS . So i didn't get to pick my call sign, oh well, I don't know i would have ever figured out that paper app. I got my License 2 days after i submitted it all online. The stated wait time for paper apps is somewhere around 3 months or something like that.
I got my GMRS yesterday finally. got my FRN in July and just now had the money to get the License. I would rather pay for the license and be able to use the long range part 95 walkies than use what they sell as "emergency" radios(Family radios) . They get about 100 yards in coverage in real world scenarios, and they are built like kidde toy things too not like they will actually work in a needed situation anyway. My license says it covers 10 years.
It is likely they are telling the truth. If the radio is 2 watts or less on all channels then it is now considered an FRS radio. Google "new 2017 rule changes FRS/GMRS."