U.S. Business Critical Communications Sector Experiences a Surge in LMR Licensing Activity

According to Urgentcomm, Business-industrial LMR licensing is on track to reach its highest level in five years, while public-safety land-mobile-radio (LMR) licensing activity is tracking near normal levels for recent years through almost eight months of the year, according to figures from the FCC's online Universal Licensing System (ULS) database.

FCC officials have granted 1,968 of the 2,019 LMR licensing applications received through Wednesday in the public-safety arena, according to the ULS database.

The public-safety sector is on track to receive 3,066.20 licenses this year if the 51 pending applications are approved. The figure in question is comparable to the public-safety LMR licensing totals for five of the past six years. The sole exception is the pandemic-influenced year of 2020, when the total of 2,763 licenses was the lowest since 2017, falling outside the range of 3,000 to 3,200.

The 2023 LMR licensing activity for the public-safety sector was also updated by the ULS.

The FCC has granted 6,984 of the 7,227 LMR license applications this year in the business-industrial sector, according to the online ULS. The business-industrial licensing activity is on track to approve 10,945.46 licenses in 2024, assuming that the 243 pending applications are approved—an unlikely scenario.

Business-industrial LMR licensing activity has not exceeded the 10,700 figure since 2019, when the FCC granted 10,780 LMR licenses for the sector. If achieved, this total would indicate a significant increase.

Although it is uncertain whether this threshold can be achieved, the current pace suggests that the FCC will approve over 10,000 business-industrial LMR licenses this year. This is a significant increase in activity, as the sector has received fewer than 9,800 licenses in each of the past four years.

The FCC has approved 9,791 business-industrial LMR license applications for the year, with three applications still unresolved, according to updated figures from 2023. This 2023 total represents the fourth consecutive year in which the business-industrial sector has failed to grant 10,000 LMR licenses, despite the fact that it was the highest during that period.

Although these business-industrial LMR activities of the past two years are more favorable than those of the recent past, they are still near the lowest levels in history. At least 11,250 licenses were approved for the business-industrial sector during the initial 16 years of the online ULS database. In the period from 2017 to 2019, the FCC issued between 10,200 and 10,800 business-industrial LMR licenses annually. However, the annual total has failed to surpass 10,000 in each of the subsequent four years.

The projected 2024 total, which is an optimistic estimate, would represent a 63% decrease from the all-time high total of 29,569 licenses granted during the narrowbanding-influenced year of 2012, even if all pending business-industrial LMR licensing applications are approved.