FCC dives in to sink Chinese grip on undersea internet cables
- Reference: 1752770161
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/17/fcc_china_subsea_cables/
- Source link:
FCC chairman Brendan Carr [1]announced on Wednesday that the Commission would vote next month on a rule that will not only secure undersea cables from America's international adversaries, but also pump cash into a buildout of submarine infrastructure. As is the case with most tech investments in 2025, this is being done "to accelerate the buildout of AI infrastructure."
"As the US builds out the datacenters and other infrastructure necessary to lead the world in AI and next-gen technologies, these cables are more important than ever," Carr said in a canned statement, noting that submarine cables carry 99 percent of the world's internet traffic, and are facing increased threats from countries like [2]China and [3]Russia .
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According to the announcement yesterday, the rule proposes to issue default denials to "certain foreign adversary-controlled" applicants for cable construction, operation or leasing, and would prohibit the use of "covered" equipment in subsea cable infrastructure. How the FCC is defining covered equipment here is unknown. The proposed rule isn't public and the Commission declined to provide us with a copy or provide answers to any questions we asked.
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That said, the category of covered equipment may end up looking something like the [7]rip-and-replace order signed in 2021 that directed telecoms to tear out networking equipment made by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE.
[8]China orders its telcos to rip and replace US chips with homegrown silicon by 2027
[9]Hyperscalers are carving up the ocean floor into private internet highways
[10]FCC on the prowl for Huawei and other blocked Chinese makers in America
[11]Submarine cable resilience board announced on same day maybe-cut-by-China Baltic cable repaired
The feds' attempt to keep foreign tech and influence out of US-connected subsea cables won't be simple, judging from the slow walk of the rip-and-replace program.
Despite kicking off four years ago, the FCC is still trying to make rip and replace happen. As of July 2024, the Commission was warning that most telcos were a long way off from meeting the program's demands, and were coming up billions short to fund the effort. Biden administration FCC chief Jessica Rosenworcel [12]urged a spectrum auction to raise funds for rip and replace, which still has yet to happen. The FCC was only cleared to [13]restart spectrum auctions with the passage of Trump's budget bill earlier this month.
Submarine cables have been a hot topic over the past few years as they've come under attack, with everyone from China and Russia to Yemeni Houthi rebels [14]allegedly getting in on the act. China hasn't restricted itself to cable-cutting operations in local waters, with a ship from the East Asian nation [15]accused of damaging a cable in the Baltic Sea late last year as well.
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Sweden [17]deployed naval forces to patrol the Baltic earlier this year to head off cable-cutting attacks. And China is reportedly [18]developing a device specifically designed to sever subsea cables. It's able to operate at twice the maximum subsea cable depth, meaning even the deepest cables are no longer safely out of reach. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-carr-announces-rules-accelerate-submarine-cable-buildout
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/06/taiwan_china_submarine_cable_claim/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/russia_readies_submarine_cable_sabotage/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aHlydYRtTnfeOESlbTexMwAAAcU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aHlydYRtTnfeOESlbTexMwAAAcU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aHlydYRtTnfeOESlbTexMwAAAcU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/14/fcc_huawei_zte_replacement/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/13/china_telco_chips/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/aspi_hyperscaler_cables/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/fcc_chinese_telco_huawei/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/02/cable_advisory_board/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/fcc_chief_urges_spectrum_auction/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/trump_budget_bill_spectrum_auctions/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/red_sea_cables_houthi/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/21/chinese_ship_baltic_cable/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aHlydYRtTnfeOESlbTexMwAAAcU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] http://theregister.com/2025/01/13/sweden_baltic_cable_attack/
[18] https://bisi.org.uk/reports/chinas-new-deep-sea-cable-cutter-and-its-security-implications
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
You fuckwit.
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea etc pissing with international undersea cables.
United States, Israel, EU, NATO etc trying to run undersea cables to everybody's benefit.
That you do not get it, and furthermore do not even get that pissing in el Reg's pocket is utterly counterproductive, makes you the true laughing-stock.
Your only saving grace would be to come out as a Putin-controlled AI. Such blunders would then be more forgivable.
>> United States, Israel, EU, NATO etc trying to run undersea cables to everybody's benefit.
Everybody's benefit? You are talking out of your arse. The USA is not our friend. Tariffs, motherfucker, have you heard of them?
"The USA is not our friend."
I've got loads of mates in the USofA, I've tried to stop them from apologizing for Trump. There is no need, its just a phase.
If T2 does manage to become T3 (or something similar) then things will become very worrying indeed - that's when you know that everything, including the Constitution has been thrown out of the window.
So, for now, we hunker down and wait for that particular bit of the world to settle down.
And why are we supposed to care?
This article is written very much from the POV of America being on the 'right' side. The poor old USA, with all these adversaries. Where did they come from? Something must be done.
Meanwhile, the USA is making more adversaries every day. More tariffs = less friends, and don't pretend otherwise.
Maybe it really will be the case soon of the whole world vs the USA. Maybe we don't want INTERNATIONAL undersea cables under American influence or control. Did Brandon Vigliarolo ever consider that?
What the world needs is less USA.
Re: And why are we supposed to care?
The world certainly needs a lot less Trump.
That said, cutting undersea cables isn't just happening to the US, look at the Baltic Sea, which AFAIK is not part of the US. It's not even, I think, near Greenland, the putative 52nd state.
It's a challenge to everyone and just because this is the US FCC talking about it here doesn't make it any less real. You wouldn't want something to happen to your TikTok dancing hamster vids, would you?
The US can dictate legislation out to 12 miles from their coastline. Other than that, it is international waters and US law does not apply.
There is an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) out to 200 miles from the coast. - UNCLOS explicitly states that all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the freedom of laying submarine cables and pipelines in the EEZ. This is derived from the high seas freedoms, which largely apply in the EEZ as long as they are not incompatible with the coastal state's specific EEZ rights. And undersea cables do not conflict.
Nice try.
Any country is free to buy and sell oil in any currency.
Feel free to look up the ones that decided they no longer wanted the PetroDollar.
Look how Brazil is being bullied by the USA .
Look what happens when private contractors murder people in other countries
Laws mean jack shit when you have the largest military in the world.
"The US can dictate legislation out to 12 miles from their coastline. Other than that, it is international waters and US law does not apply."
I cannot see any possible reason why you would lay an undersea cable 13 miles off the coast of Hawaii or Oregon unless you were planning on laying it to Hawaii or Oregon. So they just mean that they will blanket deny any cable construction that terminates in the US from these groups.
And the rest of the world should do the same for American cables.
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea etc bad.
United States, Israel, EU, NATO etc good.
Ok, we get it... What drivel for the dumb masses.