NCTA Calls for Light Touch on 'Trusted' Subsea Cable Operators
"Trusted" U.S.-based submarine line terminal equipment owners and operators that don't pose a big national security risk should be exempt from all SLTE-related licensing and reporting requirements, NCTA said last week (docket 24-523). An example would be NCTA members that use completely domestic SLTE and lease fiber capacity to provide connectivity from a U.S. location to another U.S. location, it said. With those systems being wholly domestic and owned and operated by trusted U.S.-based entities, they don't pose a notable national security risk and should be excluded from any FCC subsea cable system licensing rules, NCTA said.
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The Information Technology Industry Council said the FCC's proposed expansion of licensing requirements to SLTE owners and operators "is overly broad." SLTE owners and operators generally don't manage the overall cable system and have no access to or control over foreign endpoints, ITI said. It said requiring all SLTE owners and operators to become licensees instead of targeting specific high-risk entities "will be highly burdensome." It said those licensees would face onerous license requirements even with blanket licenses.
The FCC in August adopted a submarine cable licensing Further NPRM that proposed blanket licenses to entities that own or operate SLTEs (see 2508070037).