Circuit Status Report

Circuit Status Reports. Under Section 43.82 of the Commission's rules each facility-based carrier engaged in providing international telecommunications services is require to file a circuit status report. All carriers must file the Circuit Status Reports by March 31 for the prior calendar year.  The information included in the circuit status report is described in the Circuit Status Manual [csmanual.doc | PDF].  Section 43.82 requires all facility-based carriers (including facility-based resellers) to file the report regardless of whether or not they have activated circuits at the year-end.  If carriers do not have any activated circuits at year-end, they are still required to file a report stating that they do not have any activated circuits.

The International Bureau releases reports summarizing the data filed by facilities based carriers. The reports may be found below:

For further information, please contact Cathy.Hsu@fcc.gov at (202) 418-2114.

In 2013, the Commission released a Second Report and Order that significantly streamlined and modernized the Commission’s international traffic, revenue, and circuit reporting requirements. The changes have not yet taken effect (with one exception), and carriers made their 2013 filings under the old requirements. The Commission anticipates that a new online filing system will be available in time for the filing of the 2014 data in 2015. Under the Commission’s revised rules, Section 43.62, also sets forth annual circuit capacity reporting requirements, replacing the old circuit status reporting requirements. The new reporting requirements will apply to (1) any facilities-based common carrier with active satellite or terrestrial circuits between the United States and a foreign point; (2) any non-common carrier satellite licensee with active circuits between the United States and a foreign point; (3) any licensee of a submarine cable between the United States and a foreign point; or (4) any common carrier with capacity on a submarine cable between the United States and a foreign point. The new terrestrial and satellite circuits will be reported in world-total count, rather than the old requirement of country-by-country count. The new submarine cable circuits are required to report by “per-cable basis”, rather than the old requirement of country-by-country basis

To implement these revised requirements, the Commission has released a new Filing Manual that provides instructions to carriers filing reports under the revised requirements (43.62 Filing Manual). The Commission will compile the data filed in FCC statistical reports that will be published annually.