Editorial Features | News / Analysis

FCC gathering info on submarine cable systems

The Federal Communications Commissions intends to ask about 25 operators of approximately 50 different submarine telecommunications cable systems to provide the Commission with information about the status of their cable systems and landing stations and any restoration plans they may have in place.

This information is being sought to provide "situational awareness of submarine cable performance as well as a greater understanding of potential physical threats to the submarine cable systems," explained the FCC in a Federal Register notice posted April 30.

The information supplied by the cable operators will be viewed as "presumptively confidential," said the FCC, because the release of such information could "potentially facilitate terrorist targeting of critical infrastructure and key resources."

The FCC received on April 16 emergency approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect this data.

The FCC estimated that it would receive responses from 25 operators, each reporting on approximately two separate underwater cables, which would consume about 550 hours of preparation per respondent.

The FCC also considers the data to be commercially sensitive because it will include information about the types and deployment of cable equipment and the traffic that flows through such cables.

• Print
• E-mail
• Add your comment
• trackback url: http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/trackback/729-1