(a) You are exempt from rent under this part if:

(1) You are a Federal, State, or local governmental entity (except as provided by paragraph (b) of this section);

(2) You have been granted an exemption under a statute providing for such; or

(3) Your facilities were financed in whole or in part, or are eligible for financing, under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, as amended (REA) (7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) or are extensions of such facilities. However, when a holder who is exempt from rent under REA adds non-eligible tenant uses on the authorization, the holder will become subject to rent in accordance with §§ 2866.30 through 2866.44.

(b) Exceptions:

(1) The exemptions in this section do not apply if you are in trespass.

(2) If you are a governmental entity, you are not exempt from rent when:

(i) The facility, system, space, or any part of the authorization is being used for commercial purposes;

(ii) You are a municipal utility or cooperative whose principal source of revenue is customer charges; or

(iii) You charge the United States rent for occupancy within or on your facility beyond standard operation and maintenance fees.

(a) The BLM may waive or reduce your rent if you are licensed by the FCC as noncommercial and educational.

(b) The BLM may evaluate and approve, in writing, any requests for waiver or reduction in the annual rent for authorizations granted to:

(1) An amateur radio club (such as Civil Air Patrol) which provides a benefit to the general public or to the programs of the Secretary of the Interior;

(2) A nonprofit organization; or

(3) Holders that demonstrate that their rates will cause undue hardship and that it is in the public interest to waive or reduce the rent (see § 2806.15(b)(5)).

(c) The BLM will not waive or reduce your rent when:

(1) Your organization exists and operates for the principal benefit of its members;

(2) The facility, system, space, or any part of the right-of-way area is being used for commercial purposes;

(3) You charge the United States to occupy your facility; or

(4) You charge rent to your occupant or occupants, beyond standard operation and maintenance fees, when those occupants' use or uses are exempted or waived from rent by the BLM.

(d) The BLM will revoke your existing waiver or reduction of rent if the BLM determines that you no longer meet the criteria above for a waiver or reduction.

The BLM will calculate your rent for linear rights-of-way for communications uses, such as telephone lines and fiber optic cable, as provided in § 2806.23.

(a) Rent schedule. You may obtain a copy of the current schedule from any BLM state, district, or field office, or by writing: Attention to the Division of Lands, Realty and Cadastral Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C St. NW, Mail Stop 2134LM, Washington, DC 20240. The BLM also posts the current communications use rent schedule at http://www.blm.gov.

(1) The BLM uses a rent schedule to calculate the rent for communications uses. The schedule is based on population strata (the population served), as depicted in the most recent version of the Ranally Metro Area (RMA) Population Ranking, and the type of communications use or uses for which the BLM normally grants communication site rights-of-way. These uses are listed as part of the definition of “communications uses rent schedule,” set out at § 2861.5.

(2) The BLM will update the schedule annually based on the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. City Average (CPI-U), as of July of each year (difference in CPI-U from July of one year to July of the following year), and the RMA population rankings.

(3) The BLM will limit the annual adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index to no more than 5 percent. The BLM will review the rent schedule to ensure that the schedule reflects fair market value.

(b) Uses not covered by the schedule. The communications uses rent schedule does not apply to:

(1) Communications uses located entirely within the boundaries of an oil and gas lease, and solely supporting the operations of the oil and gas lease (see parts 3160 through 3190 of this Chapter);

(2) Communications facilities and uses ancillary to a linear authorization that are entirely within the scope of an authorized linear right-of-way, such as a railroad authorization or an oil and gas pipeline authorization, that solely support the operations authorized by that right-of-way and that are owned and operated by the authorization holder for that right-of-way;

(3) Linear communications uses not listed on the schedule, such as telephone lines, fiber optic cables, and new technologies;

(4) Grants for which the BLM determines the rent by competitive bidding; or

(5) Communication facilities and uses for which a BLM State Director concurs that:

(i) The expected annual rent, that the BLM estimates from market data, exceeds the rent from the rent schedule by at least five times; or

(ii) The communication site serves a population of one million or more and the expected annual rent for the communications use or uses is more than $10,000 above the rent from the rent schedule.

(a) Basic rule. The BLM calculates rents for:

(1) Single-use facilities by applying the rent from the communications uses rent schedule (see § 2866.30) for the type of use and the population strata served; and

(2) Multiple-use facilities, whose authorizations provide for subleasing, by setting the rent of the highest value use in the facility or facilities as the base rent (taken from the rent schedule) and adding to the base rent 25 percent of the rent from the rent schedule for all tenant uses in the facility or facilities that are not already being used as the base rent (rent = base rent + 25 percent of all rent due to additional tenant uses in the facility or facilities) (see also §§ 2866.32 and 2866.34).

(b) Exclusions. When calculating rent, the BLM will exclude customer uses, except as provided for at §§ 2866.34(b)(4) and 2866.42. The BLM will also exclude those uses exempted from rent by § 2866.14 of this subpart, and any uses for which rent has been waived or reduced to zero as described in § 2866.15.

(c) Annual statement. By October 15 of each year, you, as a grant holder, must submit to the BLM a certified statement listing any tenants and customers in your facility or facilities and the category of use for each tenant or customer as of September 30 of the same year. The BLM may require you to submit additional information to calculate your rent. The BLM will determine the rent based on the annual inventory certification statement provided. The BLM requires only facility owners or facility managers to hold a grant (unless you are an occupant in a federally owned facility as described in § 2866.42) and will charge you rent for your grant based on the total number of communications uses within the right-of-way and the type of uses and population strata the facility or site serves. If you fail to submit your annual inventory certification by October 15 (by electronic correspondence or postmarked), you may not receive any discounts, reductions, exemptions, or waivers (see §§ 2866.14, 2866.15, and 2866.34), to which you may have been entitled.

(a) The BLM determines the population strata served as follows:

(1) If the site or facility is within a designated RMA, the BLM will use the population strata of the RMA;

(2) If the site or facility is within a designated RMA, and it serves two or more RMAs, the BLM will use the population strata of the RMA having the greatest population;

(3) If the site or facility is outside an RMA, and it serves one or more RMAs, the BLM will use the population strata of the RMA served having the greatest population;

(4) If the site or facility is outside an RMA and the site does not serve an RMA, the BLM will use the population strata of the community it serves having the greatest population, as identified in the current edition of the Rand McNally Road Atlas; or

(5) If the site or facility is outside an RMA, and it serves a community of less than 25,000, the BLM will use the lowest population strata shown on the rent schedule.

(b)(1) The BLM considers all facilities (and all uses within the same facility) located at one site to serve the same RMA or community. However, at its discretion, the BLM may make case-by-case exceptions in determining the population served at a particular site by uses not located within the same facility and not authorized under the same grant. For example, when a site has a mix of high-power and low-power uses that are authorized by separate grants, and only the high-power uses are capable of serving an RMA or community with the greatest population, the BLM may separately determine the population strata served by the low-power uses (if not collocated in the same facility with the high-power uses), and calculate the rent as described in § 2866.30.

(2) For purposes of rent calculation, all uses within the same facility and/or authorized under the same grant must serve the same population strata.

(3) For purposes of rent calculation, the BLM will not modify the population rankings published in the Rand McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide or the population of the community served.

The BLM calculates the rent for a grant authorizing a single-use communication facility from the communications uses rent schedule (see § 2866.30 of this subpart), based on your authorized single use and the population strata it serves (see § 2866.32 of this subpart).

(a) Basic rule. The BLM first determines the population strata the communication facility serves according to § 2866.32 of this subpart and then calculates the rent assessed to facility owners and facility managers for a grant for a communication facility that authorizes subleasing with tenants, customers, or both, as follows:

(1) The BLM will determine the rent of the highest value use in the facility or facilities as the base rent, and add to it 25 percent of the rent from the rent schedule (see § 2866.30) for each tenant use in the facility or facilities;

(2) If the highest value use is not the use of the facility owner or facility manager, the BLM will consider the owner's or manager's use like any tenant or customer use in calculating the rent (see § 2866.35(b) for facility owners and § 2866.39(a) for facility managers);

(3) If a tenant use is the highest value use, the BLM will exclude the rent for that tenant's use when calculating the additional 25 percent amount under paragraph (a)(1) of this section for tenant uses;

(4) If a holder has multiple uses authorized under the same grant, such as a TV and a FM radio station, the BLM will calculate the rent as in paragraph (a)(1) of this section. In this case, the TV rent would be the highest value use and the BLM would charge the FM portion according to the rent schedule as if it were a tenant use.

(b) Special applications. The following provisions apply when calculating rents for communications uses exempted from rent under § 2866.14 of this subpart or communications uses whose rent has been waived or reduced to zero under § 2866.15 of this subpart:

(1) The BLM will exclude exempted uses or uses whose rent has been waived or reduced to zero (see §§ 2866.14 and 2866.15) of either a facility owner or a facility manager in calculating rents. The BLM will exclude similar uses (see §§ 2866.14 and 2866.15) of a customer or tenant if they choose to hold their own grant (see § 2866.36) or are occupants in a Federal facility (see § 2866.42(a));

(2) The BLM will charge rent to a facility owner whose own use is either exempted from rent or whose rent has been waived or reduced to zero (see §§ 2866.14 and 2866.15), but who has tenants in the facility, in an amount equal to the rent of the highest value tenant use plus 25 percent of the rent from the rent schedule for each of the remaining tenant uses subject to rent;

(3) The BLM will not charge rent to a facility owner, facility manager, or tenant (when holding a grant) when all of the following occur:

(i) The BLM exempts from rent, waives, or reduces to zero the rent for the holder's use (see §§ 2866.14 and 2866.15);

(ii) Rent from all other uses in the facility is exempted, waived, or reduced to zero, or the BLM considers such uses as customer uses; and

(iii) The holder is not operating the facility for commercial purposes (see § 2866.15(c)(2)) with respect to such other uses in the facility; and

(4) If a holder, whose own use is exempted from rent or whose rent has been waived or reduced to zero, is conducting a commercial activity with customers or tenants whose uses are also exempted from rent or whose rent has been waived or reduced to zero (see §§ 2866.14 and 2866.15), the BLM will charge rent, notwithstanding § 2866.31(b), based on the highest value use within the facility. This paragraph (b)(4) does not apply to facilities exempt from rent under § 2866.14(a)(3) except when the facility also includes ineligible facilities.

If an entity engaged in a PMRS, internal microwave, or “other” use is:

(a) Using space in a facility owned by either a facility owner or facility manager, the BLM will consider the entity to be a customer and not include these uses in the rent calculation for the facility; or

(b) The facility owner, the BLM will follow the provisions in § 2866.31 to calculate rent for a grant involving these uses. However, the BLM includes the rent from the rent schedule for a PMRS, internal microwave, or other use in the rental calculation only if the value of that use is equal to or greater than the value of any other use in the facility. The BLM excludes these uses in the 25 percent calculation (see § 2866.31(a)) when their value does not exceed the highest value in the facility.

(a) You may have your own authorization, but the BLM does not require a separate grant for tenants and customers using a facility authorized by a BLM grant that contains a subleasing provision. The BLM charges the facility owner or facility manager rent based on the highest value use within the facility (including any tenant or customer use authorized by a separate grant) and 25 percent of the rent from the rent schedule for each of the other uses subject to rent (including any tenant or customer use a separate grant authorizes and the facility owner's use if it is not the highest value use).

(b) If you own a building, equipment shelter, or tower on public lands for communication purposes, you must have an authorization under this part, even if you are also a tenant or customer in someone else's facility.

(c) The BLM will charge tenants and customers who hold their own grant in a facility, as grant holders, the full annual rent for their use based on the BLM communications use rent schedule. The BLM will also include such tenant or customer use in calculating the rent the facility owner or facility manager must pay.

The BLM will include the single use in calculating rent for each grant authorizing that use. For example, a television station locates its antenna on a tower authorized by grant “A” and locates its related broadcast equipment in a building authorized by grant “B.” The statement listing tenants and customers for each facility (see § 2866.31(c) of this subpart) must include the television use because each facility is benefitting economically from having the television broadcast equipment located there, even though the combined equipment is supporting only one single end use.

If you hold grants for two or more facilities on the same communications site, you may submit an SF-299 application and be subject to cost recovery for the BLM to authorize those facilities under a single grant. The highest value use in all the combined facilities determines the base rent. The BLM then charges for each remaining use in the combined facilities at 25 percent of the rent from the rent schedule. These uses include those uses the BLM previously calculated as base rents when the BLM authorized each of the facilities on an individual basis.

(a) The BLM will follow the provisions in § 2866.31 to calculate rent for a grant involving a facility manager's use. However, the BLM includes the rent from the rent schedule for a facility manager's use in the rental calculation only if the value of that use is equal to or greater than the value of any other use in the facility. The BLM excludes the facility manager's use in the 25 percent calculation (see § 2866.31(a)) when its value does not exceed the highest value in the facility.

(b) If you are a facility owner and you terminate your use within the facility, but want to retain the grant for other purposes, the BLM will continue to charge you for your authorized use until the BLM amends the grant to change your use to facility manager or to some other communications use.

If the ancillary communication equipment is used solely in direct support of the primary use (see the definition of communications uses rent schedule in § 2861.5 and the definition of ancillary in § 2801.5 of this chapter), the BLM will calculate and charge rent only for the primary use.

When a communications facility is authorized as ancillary to (i.e., used for the sole purpose of internal communications) a grant or some other type of use authorization (e.g., a mineral lease or sundry notice), the BLM will determine the rent using the linear rent schedule (see § 2866.20) or rent scheme associated with the other authorization, and not the communications uses rent schedule.

(a) If you are an occupant of a federally owned communication facility, you must have your own grant and pay rent in accordance with these regulations; and

(b) If a Federal agency holds a grant and agrees to operate the facility as a facility owner under § 2866.31, occupants do not need a separate BLM grant, and the BLM will calculate and charge rent to the Federal facility owner under §§ 2866.30 through 2866.44.

The BLM calculates rent for passive reflectors and local exchange networks by using the same rent schedules for passive reflectors and local exchange networks as the Forest Service uses for the region in which the facilities are located. You may obtain the pertinent schedules from the Forest Service or from any BLM state or field office in the region in question. For passive reflectors and local exchange networks not covered by a Forest Service regional schedule, the BLM will use the provisions in § 2806.70 of this chapter to determine rent. See the Forest Service regulations at 36 CFR chapter II.

This section applies to a grant that authorizes a mixture of communications uses, some of which are subject to the communications uses rent schedule and some of which are not. The BLM will determine rent for these grants under the provisions of this section.

(a) The BLM establishes the rent for each of the uses in the facility that are not covered by the communications uses rent schedule using § 2806.70 of this chapter.

(b) The BLM establishes the rent for each of the uses in the facility that are covered by the rent schedule using §§ 2866.30 and 2866.31.

(c) The BLM determines the facility owner or facility manager's rent by identifying the highest rent in the facility of those established under paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section and adding to it 25 percent of the rent of all other uses subject to rent.