In the version published on 1 August 1996

Translation provided by the Federal Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts and reproduced with kind permission.

The Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, in agreement with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of Economics, hereby issues the following Ordinance under §16 (1) sentence 2 of the Telecommunications Act of 25 July 1996 (Federal Law Gazette I p1120) in conjunction with Section 2 of the Administrative Expenses Act of 23 June 1970 (Federal Law Gazette I p821):

Table of Contents

§ 1 Fees
§ 2 Calculation of Fees for Licence Classes 1 and 2
§ 3 Calculation of Fees for Licence Class 3
§ 4 Computation of Fees for Licence Class 4
§ 5 Entry into Force
Annex

§1 Fees

(1) For official acts in connection with the granting of licences the regulatory authority shall collect fees in accordance with §§2 to 4 in conjunction with the Annex, and recover expenses in accordance with §10 of the Administrative Expenses Act. In this context, not only the administrative expenditure incurred for the granting of the licence but also for management of the licence rights and for control of observance of the licence obligations shall be taken into account.

(2) If applications are rejected, licences withdrawn or official acts for the granting of licences revoked, and if applications for an official act for the granting of licences are withdrawn, fees shall be collected in accordance with §15 of the Administrative Expenses Act, and expenses recovered in accordance with §10 of the Administrative Expenses Act.

(3) For any modification to the content of a licence not solely restricting the scope of the licence, the lower limit of the general fees of Licence Classes 1 to 4 in the Annex may be reduced to DM30.

(4) A fee to be fixed shall be rounded up or down to an amount divisible by ten without a remainder. If the factor to be used for calculation of the fees is a unit of length, fractions of the unit of length up to five tenths shall be rounded down and fractions of more than five tenths shall be rounded up.

§ 2 Calculation of Fees for Licence Classes 1 and 2

Fees for Licence Classes 1 and 2 shall be calculated within the scale of fees on the basis of the administrative expenditure incurred in the individual case.

§ 3 Calculation of Fees for Licence Class 3

(1) For the purpose of calculating fees for Licence Class 3 a distinction shall be made between geographical licences (paras (3) to (5)) and line licences (paras (6) to (8)). In the case of line licences a distinction shall be made between trunk line licences and local line licences (paras (7) and 8)).

(2) Fees for the granting of licences covering areas other than nationwide areas shall be calculated in accordance with paras (4) to (8).

(3) Geographical licences shall describe the area in which the licensed activity is carried on, as a geographically defined area under a regional or local authority (federation, federal states, counties, communities), or under administratively defined parts of a regional or local authority (eg administrative regions, partial communities [Gemeindeteilorte]). Smaller areas than the ones indicated in sentence 1 may also be licensed if the licence is granted exclusively for transmission lines for the distribution of broadcasting programmes.

(4) The fee shall always be calculated on the basis of the following formula:

.

where

E_D = Number of inhabitants in Germany,
E_G = Number of inhabitants in the licensed area,
G_D = Maximum fee for a Class 3 Licence in accordance with
A.3 of Annex 1,
G_G = Licence fee.

The computation formula shall be based on the number of inhabitants as ascertained, at the end of the second calendar year preceding the date of grant of the licence, by the Federal Statistical Office for the Federal Republic of Germany and by the agency for official statistics responsible for the licensed area.

(5) If a licensed area mainly comprises industrial areas, the number of employees working in these industrial areas shall be added to the number of inhabitants. If an application is filed for a single licence covering several non-contiguous areas, the fee shall be the sum total of the fees calculated for each individual area on the basis of the formula in para (4).

(6) Line licences shall be licences describing the licensed activity as a geographical point-to-point connection. Point-to-point connections may be interconnected to form core networks. Each point-to-point connection shall be included in the calculation of fees. In the case of line licences, a distinction shall be made between trunk lines and local lines.

(7) Trunk lines shall be point-to-point connections interconnecting subscriber networks located in different communities or different local networks (networks of different licensed operators). The fee for a trunk line (G_F) shall be DM600/km straight-line distance and shall always be computed according to the following formula:

G_F = DM600/km x straight-line distance between the points to be connected.

The fee for a trunk line licence shall be derived from the addition of the trunk line charges for the individual trunk lines, computed on the basis of the formula in sentence 2, with the minimum being not less than DM2000 per licence.

(8) Local lines shall be point-to-point connections, the two terminations of which are located within the bounds of a local network or a community. The fee for a local line network shall be derived from the addition of the fixed charges for the individual local lines as indicated in Section B of the Annex.

§4 Computation of Fees for Licence Class 4

For the purpose of calculating fees for Licence Class 4 a distinction shall be made between geographical licences (§3 (3) to (5)) and line licences (§3 (6) to (8)). In the case of line licences a distinction shall be made between trunk line licences and local line licences 3 (7) and (8)).

The calculation procedure described for Licence Class 3 shall also be applicable to the computation of fees for geographical and line licences. In each individual case the calculation formula shall be based on the factors applicable to Licence Class 4 as indicated in A.4 and B.2 of the Annex.

§5 Entry into Force

This Ordinance shall enter into force on 01 August 1996.

Annex (pertaining to §1(1) of the Ordinance concerning Telecommunications Licence Fees)

Schedule of Fees (Fees for Licence Classes 1 to 4 in accordance with §6(2) and §16(1) of the Telecommunications Act)

The above translation was published by the Federal Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts. Reproduced with kind permission. This HTML edition by Lawrence Schäfer and © 2001 Gerhard Dannemann. The contents of this page may be downloaded and printed out in single copies for individual use only. Making multiple copies without permission is prohibited.