LMR licensing for business-industrial sector hit new all-time low in 2021

An FCC database indicates that LMR licensing activity by business/industrial users dipped slightly last year, despite the fact that the figures were inflated by a one-time boost caused by the FCC unfreezing T-Band systems a year ago.

A total of 9,446 license applications were submitted by business/industrial entities during 2021, with 9,368 being granted and 78 pending as of yesterday, according to the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) online database. This figure trails the all-time-low figure of 9,451 license applications that was set in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had its greatest impact.

Most industry observers expected LMR licensing activity to rebound in 2021, because the distribution of vaccines meant a reopening of many businesses, as well as the fact that the FCC allowed T-Band systems to make substantial changes for the first time in nine year.

Indeed, the pent-up demand among T-Band networks resulted in about 200 LMR licenses being filed during the first half of last year, but the one-time licensing boost was not enough to cause enterprise licensing activity to eclipse the 2020 figure of 9,451. This 2020 number represented an all-time low at the time, as well as the first instance that fewer than 10,000 LMR licenses were granted for business/industrial users.

Hopes for improvement this year have not materialized during the first quarter of this year. Through April 3, the FCC has received 2,392 LMR license submissions—a pace that, if maintained, would result in the first year of less than 9,400 licenses being granted.

Some industry sources have noted that the enterprise LMR sector could be boosted as hundred of millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding flood the market during the next few years. Many of these same sources projected an increase in LMR activity as a result of the establishment of temporary COVID-19 testing and vaccination centers, but these locations overwhelmingly opted to use push-to-talk-over-cellular (PoC) solutions rather than leverage LMR.

In contrast to the business/industrial sector, LMR activity in the public-safety arena did experience a clear rebound during 2021. After dipping to an all-time low of 2,763 LMR licenses granted in 2020, there were 3,098 public-safety licenses submitted during 2021. Of this total, 3,086 have been granted and 12 are pending approval from the FCC.

This public-safety LMR licensing activity in 2021 represents a 12.1% growth compared to the 2020 figure. It was he first increase for the after eight straight years of decreases and five straight years of establishing all-time lows during the era since the FCC created the online ULS database in 2000.

While the public-safety LMR licensing growth of 2021 certainly was welcomed, last year’s total still ranks as the third-lowest figure since the FCC online database was established. This 2021 total represents a 70.1% decrease from the all-time high figure of 10,602 public-safety LMR licenses granted in 2012—a figure driven by the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate—and a 27.1% decrease from the 4,248 public-safety licenses granted in 2015, when the narrowbanding “bubble” was no longer a factor.

With 3,098 public-safety LMR licenses submitted in 2021, it marked the third consecutive year of less than 3,100 licenses being granted and fourth straight year of fewer than 3,200 licenses being granted in the sector. Thus far, the current year’s licensing activity does not indicate any change in this trend—the 782 public-safety LMR license applications submitted through Sunday project to less than 3,100 licenses being submitted for the year, if the current pacing is maintained.