Last year the FCC issued several Notices of Apparent Liability to several cross-border companies in southern California. These companies were using unlicensed microwave data links to connect corporate and production facilities. Recently the FCC finally formalized the forfeitures against most of them.
Two companies caught up in last year’s are broadcasters, and use unlicensed studio-to-transmitter (STL) links to connect studios in the U.S. with transmitters in Tijuana. Both of them claimed they were operating under the counsel of the FCC’s International Bureau, which assured them they didn’t need licenses anymore to operate the links. The Enforcement Bureau called that counsel “misplaced” and “mistaken.”
Turning $86,000 worth of NALs into $68,000 worth of fines is better than nothing, especially when compared to previous endeavors against corporate piracy of the airwaves.
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