Cybersecurity Policy Report, Proposed Undersea Cable Security Rules Need Tweaking, FCC Told, (Jun 17, 2026)

By Jeff Williams

Ahead of the FCC’s planned consideration at its June 25 meeting of a draft second report and order and second further notice of proposed rulemaking on accelerating the buildout of submarine cables, the International Connectivity Coalition (ICC) has urged the Commission to “adopt targeted clarifications” to the item dealing with when submarine cable applications are referred to Team Telecom, a proposed blanket submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) framework, and the “risk of duplicative regulation” by Team Telecom and the FCC.

The Commission should “make clear that referral to Executive Branch agencies be limited to cases presenting unusual and identifiable national security risks, defined by a high threshold with clear, narrow criteria so that discretion to refer when an applicant meets all ten national security standards is rarely invoked,” the ICC said in an ex parte filing submitted yesterday in OI docket 24-523 and MD docket 24-524 describing a meeting ICC member representatives had Monday with a legal adviser to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and other Commission officials and staff members.

The ICC also asked for clarity regarding “potential overreach” that could extend the item’s proposed SLTE framework to “service providers who are not capacity owners, resulting in an unintended and significant expansion of the Commission’s regulatory scope.”

In addition, ICC said, the FCC needs to provide “clearer language” to avoid duplicative reviews between Team Telecom and the Commission. Specifically, the group said, “licensees currently subject to national security agreements ('NSAs') should have a mechanism that would permit a licensee, upon certification to the new national security standards in their application for renewal, to be released of provisions in an NSA that are duplicative of or contrary to the standards adopted in the Report and Order. This approach would allow for the replacement of bespoke NSAs with a uniform framework, eliminating the burden of dual compliance, one of the Commission’s goals."

The FCC should also consider, either in the report and order or in the second FNPRM, implementing a process “by which current submarine cable licensees may voluntarily opt in to the new national security standards and, in doing so, be relieved of their existing NSA obligations,” ICC said.

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