4.9 GHz Incumbents: Act Now to Save Your FCC Licenses!

By James Careless

Warning! If your agency is using the 4.9 GHz band (4940–4990 MHz) for public safety communications under an FCC “PA” radio service code authorization, you need to send information about your usage to the FCC by June 9, 2025, or lose your license to do so. The Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) and the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) have spent several years fighting to protect public safety 4.9 incumbent users. The order issued by the FCC does just that as they asked and now it is time for the current users to update their licenses to protect their right to use it.

This news came out on December 9, 2024. In a Public Notice (DA 24-1137] entitled, “THE PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU AND WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU ESTABLISH DEADLINE FOR 4.9 GHZ PUBLIC SAFETY LICENSEES TO PROVIDE GRANULAR LICENSING DATA”, the FCC announced that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved its plan “to collect granular licensing data from incumbent licensees in the 4.9 GHz (4940–4990 MHz) band.” Most importantly, “each incumbent public safety licensee must provide this granular data with respect to each of its licenses, using the process described below, on or before June 9, 2025.”

The FCC is gathering this information in line with its “comprehensive nationwide approach to managing the 4.9 GHz band,” the Public Notice explained. Under this approach, “incumbent licensees must review operations under their active licenses (radio service code PA) and use the Universal Licensing System (ULS) to create new licenses (with granular data) in newly-created radio service codes PB (public safety licensees performing base/mobile, mobile-only or temporary fixed operations) and PF (public safety licensees operating fixed links). Since these new PB and PF licenses will authorize incumbent licensee operations going forward, licensees will also cancel their now duplicative and obsolete PA licenses.”

The facts are below:

• If you are using the 4.9 GHz band now, you need to look up your FCC PA authorization now and have it at hand.
• You then need to contact the FCC soon to acquire the right forms and provide them with the data they are demanding.
• Failure to finish this process, in terms of filing with the FCC by June 9, 2025, will result in your agency automatically losing the right to use the 4.9 GHz band.

The link to the FCC’s Public Notice is DA-24-1137A1.pdf