FCC Licensing

What is the FCC?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934, and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC’s jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. possessions.

Are there penalties for using radios without an FCC license?

Yes. The FCC’s policy statement 91-217 (effective August 1, 1991), established fines of $8,000.00 per day for unlicensed and/or improperly licensed radio systems. There are various other fines that can also be charged.

Who is required to have an FCC License?

Almost all, commercial or public entity radios need to be licensed. Unless you are a Subscriber on a Communications Service UHF LTR or Community Repeater System, you are required to hold an FCC License for your commercial or public radios. Basically, anything over 1 watt of power needs to have an FCC License.

Is your Business Radio System "Narrowband" compliant?
It's important to start planning now to migrate to narrowband systems by assessing your current radio equipment and applying for new or modified licenses – the FCC deadline of January 1, 2013 is not very far away.

What is Narrowbanding?
Private land mobile radio (LMR) systems - including municipal government and State and local public safety systems - use blocks of radio spectrum called channels. Historically, LMR systems have used 25 kHz-wide channels. In December 2004, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that all private LMR users operating below 512 MHz move to 12.5 kHz narrowband voice channels and highly efficient data channel operations by January 1, 2013. This migration complements a National Telecommunications and Information Administration mandate for more rapid Federal agency migration to 12.5 kHz narrowband operation by January 1, 2008. The earlier Federal deadline affects State and local FCC licensees that interface or share frequencies with Federal radio systems.