In a March 13, 2025 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking HERE, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking another important step to protect America’s submarine cable infrastructure from threats in an evolving national security and law enforcement landscape by undertaking the first major comprehensive review of the Commission’s submarine cable rules since 2001.
Written comments are due on or before April 14, 2025. Click HERE for complete instructions on how to submit comments, along with a detailed explanation of the FCC’s proposed changes to the rules.
The FCC’s review seeks to develop forward-looking rules to better protect submarine cables, identify and mitigate harms affecting national security and law enforcement, and facilitate the deployment of submarine cables and capacity to the market.
Among other things, the FCC proposes to adopt a three-year periodic reporting requirement for submarine cable landing licenses. Alternatively, the FCC seeks comment on shortening the current 25-year submarine cable license term or adopting a shorter license term in combination with periodic reporting.
The FCC also proposes or seeks comment on codifying its legal jurisdiction and other legal requirements in its rules to provide regulatory certainty to submarine cable owners and operators.
Additionally, it proposes and seeks comment on appropriate applicant and application requirements to account for the evolution of technologies and facilities and changes in the national security landscape over the last two decades and to ensure it has targeted and granular information regarding the ownership, control, use of a submarine cable system, and other things, which are critical to the FCC’s review to assess potential national security risks and other important public interest factors.
Further, the FCC seeks comment on improving the quality of the circuit capacity data and facilitating the sharing of such information with other Federal agencies.
Through these proposals, the FCC seeks to ensure that it is exercising appropriate oversight of submarine cables to safeguard U.S. communications networks.
Comments should address: (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Commission’s burden estimates; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) way to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
