Companies in non-telecom industries that operate wireless facilities and devices for internal operational communications purposes must still comply with FCC wireless licensing regulations.

Business radios (the FCC refers to these as “private mobile radio service” or PMRS radios) are subject to FCC regulations, as are devices are used for monitoring, for telemetry, in industrial control systems such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), or for radio communications in private company aircraft.

Companies must obtain and update the necessary FCC licenses to reflect new construction, modifications, and relocations of wireless facilities. Antennas or towers used with their wireless facilities may need to be registered with the FCC.

Certain types of corporate transactions, such as change of ownership, may require advance FCC approval. Even innocuous pro forma changes in the ownership chain may require further approval. 

FCC rules and regulations are numerous and complex and the consequences for non-compliance can be catastrophic.

We recommend that companies:

• periodically audit their compliance with the FCC rules
• designate an internal compliance officer responsible for overseeing such compliance
• and establish a written compliance manual that engineers and personnel can consult before deploying wireless facilities, to be sure that they are deployed and operated in compliance with FCC requirements.