How to use the FCC License Search tool....

You can use the FCC Universal Licensing System to research which carriers have licenses in your area. You will need State and County names before you begin. Please note that this search tool is not designed only for Cellular/PCS services. There are many other services that the FCC licenses such as TV and FM/AM Radio services and can be found through this tool as well. Therefore, this is a HUMONGOUS database and searches have to be carefully narrowed down. After this, arm yourself with patience. The ride can be slow sometimes. So here we go:

- First, go to this address: http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

- Click on Advanced License Search.

- In Service Group, select Cellular-Like Service

- Below that, select BOTH CL - Cellular and CW - PCS Broadband by clicking and dragging your mouse over the two selections or by using the Shift Key in your keyboard.

- Once the two entries are selected, click on the Geosearch button on top.

- In the next page, verify that it says "Radio Service CL, CW" in the Specified Search section.

- Below, select the State and County. You can select more than one county at a time, but it is NOT recommended because this may take too long to process and return too many entries. Select one county at a time.

- After this click on the Submit button above. Sometimes the FCC database can be slow, so be patient.

- After this, you will get the results for the county you selected. In the Radio Service column, you will see usually two entries with CL and the rest have CW. The CL means those are 800Mhz and CW means 1900Mhz.

- The Licensee Names you will see are not necessarily the name of the carrier and many times you will not recognize which one is Verizon or Cingular because the Licensee Name they use is totally different.

- If you click on the Licensee Name you will get details on that license, like the frequency block it uses (A, B, C, etc.).

- You can many times identify, or guess who the carrier is by looking at the contact information below. By looking at the e-mail address it should give you a hint about who the carrier is.

Good luck!

By the way, if you are researching Nextel, don't even try it. It is too complicated and the amount of data returned can be overwhelming. They would be under SMR instead of CL or CW if you want to give it a shot. But don't ask me details about that.