Federal Communications Commission	DA 21-230


DA 21-230
Released:  February 25, 2021


REMINDER REGARDING REQUIREMENT TO REPORT OWNERSHIP 
CHANGES IN THE ANTENNA STRUCTURE REGISTRATION SYSTEM 


This Public Notice serves as a reminder that all parties to transfers of ownership of registered wireless communications towers must comply with the process set forth by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau) in a prior Public Notice.  This reminder is necessary because of inconsistent compliance with this process, and it reflects the importance of maintaining accurate records in the FCC’s Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) System, which functions to protect aircraft navigation safety.    

On February 11, 2019, the Bureau issued a Public Notice announcing that the Commission was revising its ASR System to put into place a new process for reporting changes in ownership of towers and other structures registered in the system. New Procedure for Reporting Ownership Changes in The Antenna Structure Registration System To Be Implemented February 14, 2019, Public Notice, 34 FCC Rcd 314 (WTB 2019) (Ownership Change Public Notice).
  Related changes were made to FCC Form 854, Antenna Structure Registration, and the Commission’s ASR website on the same date.  

The ownership change application procedure is a two-step process that requires both the assignor (current owner of record) and the assignee (new owner of record) to take several steps – log into ASR, complete their respective portions of the application, and provide the signature of an authorized person.  In the time since these changes were enacted, there have been a number of instances where ownership changes were not properly completed because one of the parties failed to complete the process.  These failures made it difficult to identify the owner responsible for compliance with our Part 17 rules, See generally, 47 CFR Part 17, Construction, Marking, and Lighting of Antenna Structures. 
 led to complications in subsequent transfers, and resulted in other administrative inefficiencies.   

This Public Notice serves as a reminder that all parties to transfers of ownership of registered towers must comply with the process set forth in the Ownership Change Public Notice.  Further, we recommend that parties complete the change of ownership in ASR as part of the sales transaction, rather than leaving the ASR ownership change to be completed at a later date.  If the ownership change application process is not properly completed by both parties, the ASR system will identify the wrong entity as the owner, which may result in the wrong entity being held responsible for a tower it no longer holds and may slow down future transfers of ownership for current owners.  It could also impact aviation safety by preventing or delaying lighting outage reports from reaching tower owners and thus delay subsequent FAA notification and repairs.       

Additional Information

For further information or assistance with the online application process, you can contact the Licensing Support Hotline at (877) 480-3201 option 2; TTY (717) 338-2824.  The Hotline is available to assist with questions Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET.  In order to provide better service to the public, all calls to the Hotline are recorded.
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