Canada’s largest railway will pay a $5.25 million fine for failing to adhere to telecommunications rules in the United States.
In a Sept. 11 announcement, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said Canadian National Railway has agreed to pay the civil penalty to resolve an FCC enforcement bureau investigation into CN’s “acquisition and operation of hundreds of wireless radio facilities in the United States without prior FCC approval.”
The FCC, which is the American equivalent to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission, said some of CN’s unauthorized operations continued for more than two decades before the company disclosed its violations to authorities.
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“Today’s action sends a clear and strong message to the railroad industry, as well as other industries that rely on wireless technology, that they will face very serious consequences when they fail to comply with the commission’s rules,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau.
“The commission has a fundamental obligation to prevent the unauthorized transfer of radio licences to unqualified parties, and to prevent unlicensed radio operations that can interfere with lawful radio communications.”
In 1995, CN acquired U.S. railroad companies that held FCC authorizations in the wireless radio services.
Radio transmitting devices are widely used in the railroad industry for voice and data transmissions related to the operation of freight and passenger trains.
An internal audit conducted by CN uncovered unauthorized transactions dating back to 1995.
The audit also revealed that CN and its predecessors had constructed, relocated, modified or operated several hundred wireless facilities without FCC approval, beginning as far back as 1990.
The fine is the largest penalty in FCC history for unauthorized radio operations and transfers of control.
