Fcc License Lookup

Overview

The FCC License Lookup actor searches the Federal Communications Commission Universal Licensing System (ULS) to extract wireless license information. The actor uses the FCC public API to retrieve license holder names, call signs, frequencies, grant and expiration dates, license classes, service types, and status information. This data covers all FCC-regulated wireless licenses in the United States.

Features

• Search FCC licensing database by company name, call sign, or keyword
• Filter results by license type (all, amateur, commercial, experimental)
• Extract comprehensive license details including grant and expiration dates
• Uses the official FCC License View API for fast and reliable data retrieval
• Automatic fallback to web scraping if the API is unavailable
• Works with empty input using default search terms (T-Mobile, SpaceX)
• Export results in JSON, CSV, Excel, or other formats via Apify datasets

Input Configuration

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
searchTerms	array	Company names, call signs, or keywords	["T-Mobile", "SpaceX"]
licenseType	string	License type filter	"all"
maxResults	integer	Maximum results per search term	100

Output Format

Each result contains the following fields:

• licenseHolder - Name of the license holder
• callSign - FCC-assigned call sign
• frequency - Licensed frequency details
• grantDate - Date the license was granted
• expirationDate - License expiration date
• licenseClass - Class or category of the license
• serviceType - Type of wireless service
• status - Current license status (Active, Expired, Cancelled)
• url - Direct link to the FCC license detail page
• scrapedAt - ISO timestamp of when the data was collected

Use Cases

This actor is useful for telecom analysts, spectrum researchers, amateur radio enthusiasts, and regulatory professionals. Common use cases include monitoring license expirations, analyzing spectrum allocation, tracking competitors' license holdings, researching amateur radio operators in a region, and building databases of licensed wireless operators for compliance monitoring.

Pricing

This actor uses a pay-per-event pricing model. You are charged $0.75 per 1,000 results delivered. There are no additional platform fees beyond compute costs.

Limitations

• The FCC API limits responses to 100 records per query; pagination is handled automatically
• Some legacy licenses may not have complete frequency or class information
• The ULS database is updated on a rolling basis; some very recent changes may not yet be reflected
• License detail URLs may change if the FCC updates their web interface

For more information about running actors on the Apify platform, visit the Apify documentation.