- New suggestions appear to secure underwater cables against foreign opponents
- This includes a standard refusal of contracts for Chinese companies
- Subsea -cables carry 99% of internet traffic
A recent proposal from FCC sketches plans to ‘loosen submarine cable investments’ to ‘accelerate the construction of AI infrastructure’ throughout the United States, while also striving to ‘secure cables against foreign opponents, such as China’.
If it was adopted, this could mean that a number of measures would be implemented to protect intruders, apply a ‘denial’ to contradictory state applicants to controlled licenses and establish requirements for physical and cyber security, and limit lease agreements to these organizations.
Alongside this, the report proposes a ban on the use of ‘covered equipment’ in underwater cable infrastructure – even if the report does not give a definition of the term.
Unsung heroes
Sabotage for intruders would be undoubtedly disastrous, not only for the United States, but to virtually every part of the world.
The cables carry 99% of all internet traffic and handle approx. 10 trillion dollars of daily financial transactions.
Although satellite technology is active, it is not yet able to handle the same amount of traffic. As FCC chairman Brendan Carr described, submarine cables are the ‘unsung heroes in global communication’.
There is a precedent for this type of order, with Huawei and ZTE facing ‘RIP and replacement’ campaigns back in 2020 in an attempt to remove Chinese technology from the rural infrastructure, as part of a major effort to exclude Chinese suppliers from the US market.
“As the United States builds the data centers and other infrastructure needed to lead the world in AI and the next gene technologies, these cables are more important than ever. At the same time, as President Trump has long recognized: ‘Financial security is national security,’ says Carr.
“We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign opponents, such as China. We are therefore taking action here to protect our intruders from foreign opponents’ ownership and access as well as cyber and physical threats.”
