Circuit Status Report (2013)

The FCC’s International Bureau released its annual circuit status report for U.S. facilities-based international common carriers. The report covers U.S. undersea cables, satellites, and terrestrial links. It identifies the activated (in-service) and idle (available, but not inservice) circuits from the United States to each international point as of December 31, 2013. For purposes of comparison, this report also incorporates historical data from the 2010-2012 circuit status reports.

The 2013 report shows activated common carrier capacity for international telephone calls, private line services, and other services from the United States grew by 13% from 2012 to 2013. The reported number of activated 64 kilobits per second (Kbps) equivalent circuits at the end of 2013 totaled 43.8 million circuits as compared to 38.6 million circuits in 2012. The top 30 destinations accounted for 99.4% of the total U.S.-activated circuits at year-end 2013 with the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany, and Mexico as the top five destinations.

This year’s report will be the last circuit status report issued under section 43.82 of the Commission’s rules. In 2013, the Commission streamlined and modernized the requirements replacing 43.82 with 43.62 requirements (FCC 13-6). Circuit capacity data filed under section 43.62 for circuits as of December 31, 2014 were due April 2015 and will be the basis of the next year’s report.