What is an FCC ID?

Two routes: certification and self-declaration

• Certification. The FCC’s rules define it as an equipment authorization approved by the Commission or issued by a Telecommunication Certification Body, a TCB, based on representations and test data from the applicant. It then covers every identical unit the company sells. Devices that transmit on purpose, over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a mobile network, generally take this route.
• Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity. The responsible company makes the measurements, or completes other procedures the FCC accepts, to make sure the equipment meets the technical standards. It does not send a sample to the FCC unless asked.

The FCC also keeps a Covered List of equipment it considers a risk to national security, and equipment from the entities on it must go through certification. In December 2025, drones and drone parts made abroad were added to it, so they cannot get new authorizations. That is why Alkyon, our concept for a flying home companion, is not offered in the US.

Reading the FCC ID

• Two parts. A grantee code, which the FCC assigns permanently to the company that applies, followed by a product code the company chooses.
• On a label. The rules ask for the words FCC ID in capital letters, on one line, legible without a magnifier.
• Or on the screen. A device with its own display may show its FCC ID there instead, with instructions on how to find it.
• Public records. Grants can be looked up by FCC ID in the FCC’s equipment authorization database, often with test reports and photos.

Before authorization

A company may show and advertise a device that is not yet authorized, but only with a notice in the FCC’s own words: “This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.”

It may also sell a device that could be authorized under the current rules on conditional terms, with a prominent disclosure of three things:

1. delivery is conditional upon successful completion of the equipment authorization process;
2. the FCC’s rules do not address consumer protection, contract or other federal or state law;
3. what the seller owes the buyer, including any refund, if authorization is not completed.

Such a device may not be delivered to its buyer before it is authorized, and the seller has to keep records of each conditional sale for five years. What else the buyer is owed, such as a timely refund, comes from consumer law: pre-ordering tech and your rights.

What it does not tell you

An FCC ID shows that the device met the FCC’s technical rules for radio devices when it was authorized. It says nothing about battery quality, durability or privacy, and it is not a review of the product. In Europe, the equivalent mark is a maker’s declaration with its own limits: what CE marking means.

Where Lychnos Ring stands

Lychnos Ring uses a mobile network, LTE-M, and Bluetooth, so it needs certification before it can be delivered in the US, and it has not been authorized yet. When US pre-orders open, they will be on conditional terms only: delivery to you is conditional upon successful completion of the equipment authorization process, FCC rules do not address consumer protection or contract law, and if the ring is not authorized, we do not deliver it and refund your deposit in full. It is in development: the pre-order terms.

Sources, read 4 November 2026: the FCC’s rules in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 47 CFR 2.803 (marketing before authorization), 2.906 and 2.907 (the two procedures), 2.925, 2.926 and 2.935 (the FCC ID and its label). General information, not legal advice.