FCC officials say submarine cable systems carry roughly 99 percent of global internet traffic. There are 90 FCC-licensed cable systems and, as of December 2022, cable landing licensees reported more than 5.3 million Gbps of available capacity and 6.8 million Gbps in planned capacity for 2025.
“The volume of financial transactions flowing over submarine cables is estimated at over $10 trillion dollars a day,” according to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez. “With submarine cable capacity measured in terabits-per-second, they are often operated by consortia with modern cables taking years of planning and construction and costing hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Securing these cables is vital. Inside Towers has reported on several suspected incidents of foreign adversaries cutting or attempting to cut these cables. That’s why FCC Commissioners adopted new rules during its monthly meeting on Thursday to secure them.
The Report and Order would modernize the Commission’s submarine cable rules to encourage high-speed infrastructure deployment, while strengthening national security. The Commission also passed a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggesting measures to further streamline and improve timeliness of submarine cable application review and make other updates to address national security threats.
With the cables growing importance comes increased risk, according to Commissioner Olivia Trusty. “Subsea cables are uniquely vulnerable to espionage, sabotage and surveillance. Our global adversaries understand this. Chinese state-owned and private companies continue to invest aggressively in subsea cable infrastructure while the Russian military has demonstrated advanced capabilities to map and monitor undersea cable routes.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr summed up the issue. “For the past decade private companies have been investing on average $2 billion every year on new construction of undersea cables as the U.S. builds data centers and other infrastructure necessary to lead the world in AI, and next generation technologies. These undersea cables are more important than ever and that’s why we’re ensuring that the Commission’s rules facilitate, not frustrate, the buildout of submarine cable infrastructure.”
Carr said the proposal “will streamline the submarine cable licensing process, accelerate construction timelines and provide certainty to investors.”
INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association, praised the vote, noting, “The Commission takes a significant step to accelerate the buildout of this important infrastructure to support growing demand, while adopting common sense measures that strengthen our national security,” said INCOMPAS SVP Government Relations and Policy Staci Pies. “As complementary to Chairman Carr’s Build America Agenda, this item rightly recognizes the critical role of submarine cables and other high-speed infrastructure in securing America’s digital future. We commend the Commission for adopting clear and consistent standards and believe this item strikes the right balance of encouraging investment while protecting the security, integrity, and resilience of submarine cable systems.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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