FCC data shows encouraging LMR licensing activity for business-industrial sector

Public-safety land-mobile-radio (LMR) licensing activity is tracking near normal levels for recent years through almost eight months of the year, but business-industrial LMR licensing is on pace to reach its highest level in five years, according to figures from the FCC’s online Universal Licensing System (ULS) database.

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

If the 51 pending applications are granted, the public-safety sector would be on pace to have 3,066.20 licenses approved this year. That figure would be similar to the public-safety LMR licensing totals for five of the last six years, with the lone exception being the pandemic-influenced year of 2020, when the 2,763 licenses marked the only year since 2017 that the total was not between 3,000 and 3,200.

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

In the business-industrial sector, the online ULS shows that 6,984 of the 7,227 LMR license applications this year have been granted by the FCC. If the 243 pending applications were approved—an unlikely scenario—the business-industrial licensing activity would be on pace to have 10,945.46 licenses approved in 2024.

If realized, such a total would represent a dramatic increase in business-industrial LMR licensing activity, which has not topped the 10,700 figure since 2019, when the FCC granted 10,780 LMR licenses for the sector.

Whether this threshold can be reached is questionable, but the current pace certainly provides optimism that the FCC will approve more than 10,000 business-industrial LMR licenses this year—a notable activity level, after less than 9,800 licenses have been approved for the sector in each of the last four years.

Updated figures from 2023 reveal that the FCC has approved 9,791 business-industrial LMR license application for the year, with three applications still pending. This 2023 total marks the fourth consecutive year in which the business-industrial sector has failed to see 10,000 LMR licenses granted, although it was largest during that period.

While these business-industrial LMR activity of the past two years is favorable compared to the recent past, it remains near the lowest totals historically. During the first 16 years of the online ULS database, the business-industrial sector had at least 11,250 licenses approved. The FCC granted between 10,200 and 10,800 business-industrial LMR licenses each year between 2017 and 2019, and then the annual total has failed to reach the 10,000 mark during each of the past four years.

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