Subsea Cable Industry Lobbies FCC's 10th Floor on Licensing Draft
The FCC should consider narrowing its proposed presumption that a violation of the Cable Landing Licensing Act should disqualify a party from future licenses, the North American Submarine Cable Association said. In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, NASCA said the presumption in the draft subsea cable order on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda (see 2507170048) would disqualify parties from future licenses, even though in the past, parties haven't lost licenses after entering into consent decrees for admitted violations. The presumption should be limited to instances where the violation wasn't remediated with a consent decree or compliance plan, resulted in a lost license or authorization, or was found by the FCC to be intentional, said NASCA. The group's filing recapped a meeting with counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, while a nearly identical filing documented a meeting with Commissioner Anna Gomez's office.
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The International Connectivity Coalition also recapped its meetings with the FCC, saying the language throughout the draft order regarding parties “owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary” could chill investment, since it puts a burden on the licensee to collect perfect knowledge of potential lessee relationships. The group told the offices of the three commissioners and the Office of International Affairs that the definition should include a reasonableness standard. In addition, the draft order's "submarine cable system" definition could be read to include components that support those cable systems, including parts not directly involved in system operation, so the coalition recommended language tweaks.